Results after repair of traumatic arterial damage in the forearm.

Eighty-three patients, with 96 instances of radial or ulnar arterial damage, were treated over a four-year period using microsurgical techniques. Thirty-one patients, with 43 arterial repairs, were available for evaluation. In the 14 patients with a single arterial repair, 4 resulted in thrombosis (71.5% success rate). When both arteries required repair, our success rate was 75.9%, with 7 thromboses. The overall success rate was 74.5%. We attribute the high patency rate to strict microsurgical technique, the repair of the vessels in the early stages after trauma, and the use of vein grafts after complete resection of the damaged portion of the vessel.