title: Iatrogenic brachial artery injury during anterolateral plating of humeral shaft fracture.
abstract: There are several well defined indications for surgical management of humeral shaft fractures. Operative procedures on the humerus are associated with their own complications. Iatrogenic brachial artery injury as a complication of humeral shaft plating has not been reported previously. We report a case of a 48 years old female, who received operation at a district hospital and was referred to us when the surgeon could not palpate the pulse. CT angiogram showed that there was segmental non-opacification of the brachial artery. There was distal reformation and the thrombosis was decided to be managed conservatively. We believe that the arterial injury was a result of improper surgical technique and the segmental block might be due to improper use of plate holding forceps. This case report makes us aware of a rare complication of operative management of humeral shaft fractures and that basic principles of surgery must be always followed to prevent such injuries.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedics, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh 160012, India.
authors.forename: Vishal
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: Prateek
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Behera
authors.forename: Sameer
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Aggarwal
authors.forename: Umesh Kumar
authors.initials: UK
authors.lastname: Meena
mesh_terms: D001860:Bone Plates; D001916:Brachial Artery; D005593:Fracture Fixation, Internal; D006801:Humans; D006810:Humeral Fractures / Q000601:surgery; D006811:Humerus; D007049:Iatrogenic Disease