[Isolated rupture of the external iliac vein in indirect blunt injuries]

The authors described an in this country hitherto unpublished observation of an isolated rupture of the external iliac vein following the fall of a patient from a height on her left side. The rupture developed most probably as a result of narrowing of the external iliac vein which crosses the left internal iliac artery. A mechanism of acute expansion of the external iliac vein due to a blast wave of venous blood expelled by an impact on the thigh and recoiled from the impediment at the site of crossing with the internal iliac vein was probably involved. After severing of the compressing artery, thrombectomy and suture of the lesion, the patient recovered ad integrum.