Venous Trauma

ABSTRACT

This is a retrospective study conducted at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Karachi from June 1994 to June 1997. Twenty three patients with thirty injured veins [on exploration] were included in this study. There were twenty male and three female victims with a mean age of 35.56 [ +/- 11.35] years. Firearm injuries [11] and road traffic accidents [6] were the predominant causes. Twenty one had combined arteriovenous injury. Twenty four veins were completely torn. Femoral and popliteal vessels were commonly injured. Twenty veins were ligated and ten were repaired. Those repaired were monitored post operatively with Doppler ultrasound. Four patients had subtotal amputation and sixteen had arterial insufficiency. Eight patients, [three deaths and five amputations] with eleven injured veins were not evaluated for final results. One patient out of five developed mild oedema with repaired veins and five out of ten with ligated veins. The difference in the rate and severity of postoperative oedema and wound healing between the two groups was not significant. We did not observe venous insufficiency during the follow-up period [three to eighteen months] in both groups