Injuries of the inferior vena cava*

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Beginning in 1946, 577 patients with inferior vena cava injuries were managed at a single institution. After decreasing from 37 to 30 percent, the mortality rate showed a distinct increase in the last 7 years studied. This increase was related to an increasing percentage of patients who arrived in the emergency center in severe shock and required resuscitative thoracotomy. In-hospital care advances have not kept pace with improvements in prehospital care. Although venous complications have not been infrequent, morbidity has not been a significant long-term problem. Fatal pulmonary embolism occurred and was a special problem for patients over the age of 50. More basic research is needed to expedite diagnosis and vascular control in addition to understanding and treating the severe metabolic problems of patients dying from shock and hemorrhage.

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      IVC injuries from blunt trauma are rare, and the outcomes are poor. Supra-hepatic, intrapericardial IVC injuries are rarest among all types of IVC injury and are nearly universally fatal [1–4]. We attribute the successful outcome of this case to the following four factors:

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      Similar to our patient, damage control strategies in the setting of coagulopathy, hemorrhage, and acidosis have been described.9,10 Based on multiple large series dealing with IVC injuries, management options for less severe infrahepatic IVC injuries include lateral repair, end-to-end anastomosis, vein patch, and vein or synthetic grafting.2-5,11 A variety of conduits have been employed for major vascular reconstructions.12

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    *

    Presented at the 40th Annual Meeting of the Southwestern Surgical Congress, Phoenix, Arizona, April 10–13, 1988.

    1

    From the Cora and Webb Mading Department of Surgery, Baylor College of Medicine and the Ben Taub General Hospital, Houston, Texas.

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