[Early Detection of Iliac Artery Rupture by Sudden Steep Reduction of Regional Saturation of Oxygen at the Ipsilateral Foot during Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation--A Case Report].

An 80-year-old woman with severe aortic stenosis was planned to undergo transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) under general anesthesia. Due to severe stenosis of the femoral arteries, the left iliac artery was cut down and a 16 F Edwards SAPIEN Expandable Sheath (eSheath : Edwards Lifesciences, Irvine, CA) was inserted into the artery smoothly. After balloon aortic valvuloplasty (BAV), an artificial valve was tried to deploy but stuck in the middle of eSheath. Suddenly regional saturation of oxygen (rSO2) at the ipsilateral foot decreased steeply without other significant hemodynamic instabilities. At insertion site of eSheath, the left external iliac artery rupture occurred. To our surprise, there was almost no major bleeding because of the artery spasm and suppression of the large bore sheath. eSheath and the stuck valve were taken out together and TAVI was discontinued. The artery was replaced with a graft, and rSO2 of the foot recovered. Her aortic stenosis improved to moderate by balloon aortic valvuloplasty (BAV) according to transthoracic echocardiography. The patient was discharged on foot without complications. To our knowledge, this is a first report of a silent rupture of the iliac artery during TAVI to be detected by sudden decrease of the foot rSO2 and treated with no fatal events.