Introduction.

Vascular trauma is a low frequency event, with a high burden of morbidity and mortality that mostly affects young men. It often requires surgical management, which is associated with multiple complications ranging from reoperation to limb amputation; that in turn, are influenced by variables associated with both trauma and hospital care.

Objective.

To characterize the patients over 13 years of age with peripheral arterial trauma admitted to the Hernando Moncaleano Perdomo University Hospital, Neiva, Colombia, from January 2014 to December 2016.

Methods.

Retrospective observational study of descriptive type with population of patients older than 13 years with peripheral arterial trauma who had a surgical procedure at the Hernando Moncaleano Perdomo University Hospital.

Results.

This study showed that the 54 patients with peripheral arterial trauma represented 1.5% of the total trauma admissions at the Institution during the study period. The most representative gender was male (n = 49), short stab wounds were the main mechanism of trauma (n = 22), and the extremities were the most commonly affected area (n = 47). An average ISS (Injury Severity Score) and a limb ischemia time of more than 6 hours in 31.48% (n = 17) of the patients were recorded at entry.

Conclusions.

Surgical interventions were undertaken by trauma surgery followed by vascular surgery. The main postoperative complications were arterial thrombosis (n=12) followed by limb amputation (n=7).

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )