Pulmonary artery catheter entrapment in cardiac surgery

A pulmonary artery catheter (PAC) is an important tool in the preoperative cardiac management, and it provides measurements which helps in the patient management During open heart surgery the catheter tends to rest against the anterior lateral wall of the right atrium where the catheter may be caught by a suture in the cannulation for cardiopulmonary bypass. We describe a very rare complication which is inadvertent surgical suturing of the PAC to the inferior vena cava that necessitated reopening the chest, cutting, the suture and removing the catheter.