[Comparative analysis of vascular injuries during times of peace and war]

The authors present results of reconstructive surgical procedures in 127 non-war and 59 war vascular injures operated on in the last ten and 2 years, respectively. Non-war injures were dominated by blunt trauma, while fire arms and explosives caused most of war injuries. Two thirds of the patients were subjected to primary, and one third to secondary operations. As much as 85% of secondary operations were made in cases of war injuries. The most common reasons for inappropriate primary operations were: incomplete diagnostics, inappropriate surgical procedure and technical errors. About two thirds of the cases were isolated vascular injuries, and one third were combined injuries where in addition to blood vessels, bones and peripheral nerves were also affected. Topographically, the upper and lower extremities were most commonly affected. Most of the operations were complex reconstructive procedures such as graft interpositions or by-passes, and less frequently only suture of a blood vessel or end-to-end anastomosis were made. Fasciotomy was an auxillary method used in all patients with late vascularization syndrome, and exposure in a special "tent" in patients with wound infection. Early success was noted on 88% of operated patients. In 12% of them amputation was performed. Primary amputation (without attempts of reconstruction) was performed in 4% out of the total number of patients. After primary operations they performed (127) the authors had to undertake amputation because of failure of the primary surgery in 4% of patients, while after secondary reconstructions (primary operations performed elsewhere) amputations were necessitated in 23% out of 57 patients. A significant difference was noted which directly correlated with the number of primary and secondary operations after war (28%) and non-war (6%) injuries.