Abstract
Popliteal artery injuries are frequently seen with fractures, dislocations, or penetrating injuries. Concern about arterial injury and early recognition of the possibility of arterial injury is crucial for the salvage of the extremity. This article provides an outline of the diagnostic challenges related to these rare vascular injuries and emphasizes the necessity for a high level of suspicion, even in the absence of a significant penetrating injury, knee dislocation, fracture, or high-velocity trauma mechanism. The importance of a detailed vascular examination of a blunt trauma patient is emphasized.
Highlights
The popliteal artery, by virtue of its ligamentous fixation and anatomic relationships to the femur, tibial plateau, and knee joint apparatus, is uniquely susceptible to injury with blunt extremity trauma.[1,4]. This arterial injury is frequently associated with knee dislocation following blunt trauma, and is seen with increasing frequency.[1]
This paper describes a rare case of blunt injury without dislocation or fracture of the knee associated with vascular injury and its delayed diagnosis resulting in amputation
The mechanism of popliteal artery injury caused by blunt trauma involves vascular occlusion secondary to thrombi of the ruptured vascular intima.[1,5]
Summary
Popliteal Artery Injury Associated with Blunt Trauma to the Knee without Fracture or Dislocation. Ahmet Imerci, MD* Kemal Özaksar, MD† Yusuf Gürbüz, MD† Tahir Sadik Sügün, MD† Umut Canbek, MD‡. Popliteal artery injuries are frequently seen with fractures, dislocations, or penetrating injuries. Concern about arterial injury and early recognition of the possibility of arterial injury is crucial for the salvage of the extremity. This article provides an outline of the diagnostic challenges related to these rare vascular injuries and emphasizes the necessity for a high level of suspicion, even in the absence of a significant penetrating injury, knee dislocation, fracture, or high-velocity trauma mechanism. The importance of a detailed vascular examination of a blunt trauma patient is emphasized. The importance of a detailed vascular examination of a blunt trauma patient is emphasized. [West J Emerg Med
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