Delayed brachial artery reconstruction after traumatic injury: A case for sustainment of surgical intervention

6Citations
Citations of this article
35Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

Abstract

The brachial artery is the commonest artery injured in the extremities. Although the patients present late, nevertheless reconstructions is advocated in other to salvage the limb and maintain function of the hand. We retrospectively examined 25 consecutive patients with vascular injuries treated at The Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery Unit of a tertiary health centre over a period of 4 years. We assessed the pre-tertiary methods of stopping of bleeding injured brachial arteries, mechanisms of injury, associated injuries, treatment and the outcome following vascular repair in terms of functionality of the forearm and the volume of the radial pulsation. A total of 12 patients (48.0%) had brachial artery injuries out of the 25 patients with different forms of vascular injuries during the period. There were 10 males and 2 females, aged 7.5-65 years. The aetiology of the brachial artery injuries were: Glass cut in 5 patients, knife cut in 3 patients, surgical complication of tendon release (iatrogenic) in 1 patient, injury from self injection of pentazocine in 1 patient, machete cut in 1 patient and blunt vascular injury from fan belt injury in 1 patient. Except for the young girl whose brachial artery was injured at surgery, and had lateral repair done within 3hours, the timing between injury and repair in the remaining 11 patients ranged between 6-288 hours. This was beyond the golden time in trauma cases. Two patients had the brachial artery revascularised using the Reversed Saphenous Vein Graft (RSVG). The wrist pulsation was small volume in one patient as felt by palpation before discharge though the forearm was viable. Otherwise the remaining patients’ outcome was good. Most of the patients with brachial artery injury present late following injury. Revascularisation beyond the golden hour is still desirable as it will help to prevent limb loss. Plans should be put in place to train vascular surgeon to encourage prompt and expertise care.

References Powered by Scopus

The golden hour: Scientific fact or medical "urban legend"?

374Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Arterial Consequences of Recreational Drug Use

98Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

An analysis of 124 surgically managed brachial artery injuries

58Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Cited by Powered by Scopus

Management of upper extremity arterial penetrating vascular trauma

4Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

TLR4 knockdown by miRNA-140-5p improves tendinopathy: an in vitro study

1Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Replantation of amputation at the wrist: Challenges of management in sub-Saharan Africa

1Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Okonta, K. E., Ocheli, E. O., & Gbeneol, T. J. (2017). Delayed brachial artery reconstruction after traumatic injury: A case for sustainment of surgical intervention. Pan African Medical Journal, 27. https://doi.org/10.11604/PAMJ.2017.27.232.7291

Readers' Seniority

Tooltip

PhD / Post grad / Masters / Doc 11

61%

Researcher 5

28%

Professor / Associate Prof. 2

11%

Readers' Discipline

Tooltip

Medicine and Dentistry 14

74%

Nursing and Health Professions 3

16%

Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceut... 1

5%

Agricultural and Biological Sciences 1

5%

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free