Situations may arise during elective and emergency surgery when vascular control is required but conventional vascular clamps cannot be used. We have found the Foley catheter useful for the control of inadvertent perforation of the heart especially in "redo" operations. We describe the use of the Foley catheter for the control of the difficult aorta and illustrate its potential versatility in a variety of uncommon situations. As Foley catheters are present in every operating theatre we hope that our experience will be of benefit to other surgeons who encounter similar problems.