Early diagnosis and treatment for severe thoracic and abdominal vascular injuries:report of 81 cases / 解放军医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the methods for early diagnosis and treatment on severe thoracic and abdominal vascular injuries.Methods Eighty one patients were diagnosed as severe thoracic and abdominal vascular injuries and treated from January 2000 to October 2007.Twenty two cases suffered from hemorrhagic shock when admitted to the Emergency Department,from whom amount of inagglutinable blood were drawn out by thoracentesis or peritoneocentesis,and underwent operation immediately;38 cases were diagnosed by spiral CT and angiography(CTA);21 cases were diagnosed by digital substraction angiography.Forty-five patients accepted operation,and 36 cases underwent blood vessel suture and repair.Angiography was performed and blood vessels were blocked by sacculus in 12 cases before operation.Nine cases underwent artificial blood vessel anastomosis,among them 3 cases had to receive damage control for heavy injury,i.e.temporary shunting was made by intubating in the severe damaged blood vessel,the patients were then resuscitated in ICU to improve system condition,and operations were performed in 48 hours.Thirty six patients,including 31 cases of retroperitoneal blood vessel injuries in pelvic cavity,were treated by arterial embolization.Results Of the 81 patients,73 cases were cured(90.1%).Thirty-five cases developed severe complications,including 6 cases of sepsis,8 ARDS and 23 MODS.Eight cases died,of them 6 cases died of multiple organs damaged and hemorrhagic shock within 12 hours after injury,and 2 cases died of sepsis and MODS respectively at 8 and 16 days after injury.Conclusions Examination and diagnosis must be done immediately when the thoracic and abdominal vascular injured,and then the urgent operation of blood vessel repair or anastomosis should be performed.Some abdominal and retroperitoneal vascular injuries may be treated with artery embolization.