Should blunt arterial trauma to the extremities be treated with endovascular techniques?

ABSTRACT

Endovascular techniques are making progress in most aspects of vascular disease. Penetrating or blunt trauma to large arteries can in many cases be managed elegantly with endovascular techniques. However when it comes to arterial trauma of the extremities things are more complicated. There are no reports hitherto in the literature on endovascular treatment of blunt injuries to the arteries of the extremities. In the present report we describe two cases of blunt trauma to the brachial artery treated with balloon angioplasty (PTA) to fixate the dissected intima to the vessel wall. The "glueing" was effective in giving a long lasting patency.We anticipate that there may be a role, though limited, for using PTA as a means of "glueing" the intima. More advanced techniques such as insertion of stents or stent-grafts in traumatized extremity arteries would rarely be indicated.