Inferior vena caval(IVC) filters are used for patients with pulmonary embolism or those with risk of embolization. Here we present a case of a 38-year-old man who underwent placement of an IVC filter because of deep vein thrombosis. The operating arm fractured and embolized to the posteromedial papillary muscle of mitral valve and the posterior inferior wall of the left ventricle through right atrium and atrioventricular septum, leading to large symptomatic mitral and tricuspid insufficiency and pericardial tamponade. This is the first case, to our knowledge, where an filter migrated to the left ventricle and destroyed the mitral valve. Since Trousseau (1868) proposed surgical ligation of the inferior vena caval(IVC) for prevention of pulmonary embolus, IVC interruption for venous thromboembolism(VTE) has been used as a means of mechanical intervention. The first surgically placed filter developed by Mobin-Uddin(1967) was subsequently superseded by Greenfield’s percutaneously inserted device(1973)[1]. Today IVC filters are used for the treatment of VTE when standard anticoagulation therapy is either contraindicated or VTE recurs despite adequate anticoagulation.
Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier Inc.

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