Management of Brachial Artery Pseudoaneurysms in Intravenous Drug Abusers

Objective To determine the outcomes of the ligation and excision of brachial artery pseudoaneurysm in IV drug abusers without revascularization.  Methodology This retrospective observational study was conducted at the vascular surgery department Shaheed Muhtarma Benazir Bhutto trauma center Karachi from January 2019 to June 2020. All the patients with a history of intravenous drug abuse presented with pulsatile mass at or near cubital fossa, diagnosed as pseudoaneurysm, age ranging from 18-70 years, and of either gender were included in the study. Patients with pseudo-aneurysm secondary to trauma, hemodialysis, arteriovenous fistula, location other than cubital fossa, and whom primary revascularization was performed were excluded. The recorded data entered and analyzed using SPSS 20.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). Results A total of 20 intravenous drug addicts were included in the study. The mean age was of 31.10 ± 7.80 years, and the mean duration of addiction was 2.24 ± 1.16 years. The right arm is affected in almost two-thirds of patients. The most common presentation in the emergency department was ruptured pseudo-aneurysm with bleeding (65%), followed by oozing with pulsatile mass (30%), and infected pulsatile mass (5%). The outcome was Limb salvage (100%), and none of the patients had developed threatened ischemia of the arm or required amputation. Conclusion The ligation and excision of the pseudo-aneurysm, without revascularization, is a safe and effective treatment option for the management of pseudoaneurysm of the brachial artery secondary to intravenous drug addiction.