Journal of vascular surgery
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Review Case Reports
Shotgun wound and pellet embolism to the intracranial carotid artery.
Missile embolism into the cerebral circulation is a very unusual complication of shotgun wounds to the chest or neck. We report a case of an 11-year-old boy who sustained an air gunshot wound and pellet embolism to the intracranial carotid artery. ⋯ The patient was successfully treated by emergency flow reversal and embolectomy. Because this injury is extremely rare, the literature is reviewed, and several principles are suggested to improve the management.
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Case Reports
Covered stent use after subclavian artery and vein injuries in the setting of vascular Ehlers-Danlos.
Vascular Ehlers-Danlos (VED) represents a rare disorder in which a defect in collagen synthesis renders vessels to be extremely fragile. We report the successful repair of a subclavian artery pseudoaneurysm via a hybrid technique employing delivery of a covered stent along with video-assisted thoracoscopic ligation of the internal mammary artery in a patient with VED.
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Some patients with aortic arch or descending thoracic aorta pathologies are not suited for open repair because of comorbidities that may increase their risk of procedural complications or death. Endovascular approaches may also be difficult when there are inadequate proximal landing zones in the aortic arch. We report our experience using rerouting techniques with bypass, stenting of the branches, or a combination of both to create a landing area in zones 0 and 1 of the aortic arch. ⋯ The hybrid approach for repair of the aortic arch pathologies is feasible in patients unfit for open repair. We present the results of performing different techniques to treat the aortic arch with hybrid repair with antegrade or retrograde inflow, stenting of the branches or a combination of both. Long-term results are unknown, and larger series results and comparative studies are needed to determine safety and efficacy.
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Controversy persists as to whether all calf vein thrombi should be treated with anticoagulation or observed with duplex surveillance. We performed a systematic review of the literature to assess whether data could support either approach, followed by examination of its natural history by stratifying results according to early clot propagation, pulmonary emboli (PE), recurrence, and postthrombotic syndrome (PTS). ⋯ No study of strong methodology could be found to resolve the controversy of optimal treatment of C-DVT. Given the risks of propagation, PE, and recurrence, the option of doing nothing should be considered unacceptable. In the absence of strong evidence to support anticoagulation over imaging surveillance with selective anticoagulation, either method of managing calf DVT must remain as current acceptable standards.
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Case Reports
Surgical conversion for intragraft thrombosis following endovascular repair of traumatic aortic injury.
We report the case of a 32-year-old man with severe polytrauma, submitted to urgent endovascular exclusion of a posttraumatic thoracic aortic pseudoaneurysm. Two years later, computed tomography scan showed asymptomatic mural atherothrombosis of the aortic stent graft in its middle-distal portion, and the patient was placed on oral anticoagulants. As subsequent computed tomography scan showed progression of the thrombosis, the patient underwent surgical conversion, with stent graft explantation and in situ aortic replacement. Gross examination revealed mural organized thrombosis and a significant infolding of the distal end of the stent graft.