ABSTRACT
When discussing the risks and benefits of percutaneous interventions, patients will often ask ‘What happens to the stuff? Where does it go?’ For many years, the answer was that the material would simply pass into the distal vasculature without any recognized impact. Embolization of thrombus and plaque material was felt to be infrequent. However, evidence to the contrary has slowly been mounting, suggesting that distal embolization is in fact a common occurrence with significant associated adverse effects. The development of devices to prevent distal embolization has further raised the awareness of this event and created a new and expanding aspect of percutaneous intervention. This chapter will briefly describe the currently available devices and the available literature to examine the current role of embolic protection devices.
