Lateral circumflex femoral artery false aneurysm as a complication of intertrochanteric hip fracture

What is it about?

We present a patient who suffered an unstable intertrochanteric hip fracture and underwent osteosynthesis with a trochan- teric nail. During the postoperative period, he presented a pseudoaneurysm of the lateral circumflex branch of the deep fem- oral artery secondary to a displaced fracture of the lesser trochanter. With the suspected diagnosis due to indirect clinical and radiological signs and confirmation by Doppler ultrasound and computed tomography angiography, a transverse arterial embolization with resolution of the symptoms was carried out. The pseudoaneurysm of the deep femoral artery or its branches is a very rare complication after intertrochanteric hip fractures, which must be taken into account in the late appearance of edema and hematoma in the thigh and evidence of medial and superior displacement of the lesser trochan- ter. The diagnosis is confirmed by CT angiography and the treatment by percutaneous arterial embolization has good results without the need of excising the lesser trochanter.

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