Endovascular treatment of vascular injuries

The endovascular management of hemodynamically stable patients with traumatic vascular lesions is an appealing concept. In principle, many of the injuries detected at the time of diagnostic angiography can be treated at the same setting. Moreover, lesions that occur at the base of the skull or at infraclavicular and pelvic locations pose far less difficulty when managed by transcatheter techniques than by traditional surgical exposure. Even among more accessible injuries, standard surgical dissection is often complicated by the presence of hematoma or pseudoaneurysm, which causes obliteration of natural tissue planes, or arteriovenous fistulas that may complicate dissection because of associated regional venous hypertension. Thus, endovascular approaches may provide easier access to the target lesion, limit the morbidity often associated with surgical exploration, and reduce transfusion requirements. Nonetheless, the long-term consequence of placing an intravascular foreign body in a young patient is undefined, and the potential risk for a device infection cannot be ignored. Definitive answers to these issues await the outcome of longitudinal follow-up studies. Until that time, a prudent approach in the use of this new technology is appropriate.