Cardiac surgery and percutaneous intervention in pregnant women with heart disease.

In pregnant women with heart disease, complications can arise due to the haemodynamic burden of pregnancy and to hypercoagulation. Most problems can be managed medically, but sometimes cardiac surgery or percutaneous intervention is unavoidable. Cardiac surgery has similar maternal mortality to that outside pregnancy, but foetal mortality and morbidity are considerable.

Stridor and Horner's syndrome, weeks after attempted right subclavian vein cannulation.

A 23-year-old woman presented with renal failure resulting from polycystic kidney disease (PKD) aggravated by tubulo-interstitial nephritis. Emergency haemodialysis was planned, and cannulation of the right subclavian vein was attempted, but failed. During this procedure, inadvertent arterial puncture occurred.