ABSTRACT
A 39 year old male comes to the emergency room because of rapidly increasing pain in his left leg one hour after the injection of Flunitrazepam into a groin vessel. There is a history of drug abuse for more than 15 years. The left leg is cool and shows intense patchy cyanosis. The same skin discoloration is seen at the left lower abdomen and parts of the thigh. The leg is paretic but foot-pulses are detectable. Color-coded duplex-sonography of the left leg shows normal shaped arteries with regular flow. Regarding the veins there are post-thrombotic changes but no signs of actual thrombosis. The ECG shows sinus rythme. No source of emboli can be found by echocardiography. The laboratory tests reveal normal results except of anemia (Hb 9.6 g/dl, normocytic, normochromic). As an accidental intraarterial injection with a toxic/allergic insult to the vessel-walls has to be supposed the patient is treated besides of analgesics with systemic anticoagulation, high doses of cortisone and calcium channel-blockers. With this therapeutic regimen the leg and the left lower abdomen improve gradually except for some toes which remain cyanotic. During the first days the patient develops signs of moderate rhabdomyolysis with swelling of the leg and an increase of creatininase concentration in blood. After 12 days the left leg has normalised but the toes show further demarcation. They have to be amputated six weeks later. The accidental injection of drugs into the femoral artery may result in the clinical picture of acute limb ischemia without occlusion of the big vessels of the leg. This obviously occurs most often with benzodiazepines, especially when crushed tablets soluted in water are injected. Color-coded duplex sonography is able to show open vessels within minutes and prevents ineffective surgical interventions.
