title: Iatrogenic axillary artery injury from humeral neck fracture repair. A rare and unusual event in which and aggressive strategy was mandatory to save a child limb.
abstract: Humeral neck fracture is rarely associated with injury of the nearby axillary artery and in the English literature only 29 such cases have been reported. An injury of the distal axillary artery secondary to reduction and fixation of a humeral neck fracture is a very rare and unusual complication, to the best of our knowledge has never been reported in literature. In this paper we report the case of entrapment of the distal axillary artery in the humerus rhyme fracture in a 9-year-old child who suffered a nighttime car-accident with her father. At admission, the child presented a left humeral neck fracture with no other lesions and no neurologic problems in her limb; peripheral pulses present in her left hand at palpation. After closed reduction and pinning of the fracture with 2 K-wires, the left upper limb became ischemic and pulseless and the child was transferred at our Institution for diagnosis and treatment. In this paper we discuss the treatment to be adopted in this very unusual situation.
authors.affiliation: Università degli Studi di Verona, II Scuola di Specializzazione in Chirurgia Generale, I Divisione Clinicizzata di Chirurgia Generale, Ospedale Civile Maggiore, Verona.
authors.forename: Gian Franco
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Veraldi
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: De Manzoni
authors.forename: Sebastiano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tasselli
authors.forename: Annamaria
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Minicozzi
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ruzzenente
authors.forename: Rosario
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pacca
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Firpo
mesh_terms: D001366:Axillary Artery / Q000293:injuries*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006810:Humeral Fractures / Q000601:surgery*; D007431:Intraoperative Complications / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery*; D023821:Limb Salvage