Removal of the arterial sheath immediately after PTCA is desirable for patients, reduces the medical staff's workload, and may decrease hospital costs due to a shortened length of stay. Although the safety and efficacy of the hemostatic systems used especially for the above purpose have been sufficiently documented, inadvertent intraluminal vascular occlusion is theoretically possible. While partial or complete arterial occlusion in conjunction with the VasoSeal collagen prototype device has been previously reported, similar complications occurring with the Angio-Seal device were not published. In this report, we describe a 54-year old female patient (height: 150 cm, weight: 42.5 kg) who was transferred for PTCA following an acute anterior wall myocardial infarction. Immediately after PTCA, the Angio-Seal device was deployed utilizing standard technique. No difficulties were encountered during device deployment, however, immediately following device placement active arterial bleeding occurred. Due to the inadequacy of hemostasis, heparin was reversed with protamine to avoid further hemorrhagic complications. Following this, the desired hemostasis quickly occurred, but the patient soon complained about symptoms suggestive of an acute occlusion of the right femoral artery. Unsatisfactory attempts at lysis resulted in the patient being transferred to vascular surgery. The complete Angio-Seal system (anchor including collagen) was located intravascularly, and removed during surgery. This case report demonstrates that even an experienced examiner can inadvertently deploy the Angio-Seal completely intraarterially. In addition to the known contraindication, "peripheral arterial occlusive disease", we recommend that the Angio-Seal device not be utilized in patients of small physical size.

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