Popliteal artery injuries: What you need to know.

ABSTRACT: Popliteal artery injuries are rare even in busy urban trauma centers. The vast majority result from penetrating mechanisms of injury. These injuries are uncommon; therefore, few trauma surgeons and trauma centers have developed significant experience with their management. Experiences from both military and urban arenas of warfare consistently report the highest complications and amputation rates of all vascular injuries secondary to popliteal artery injuries. The popliteal artery is an end artery. Injuries cause significant ischemia, which threaten limb viability. From a surgical standpoint, they are difficult to expose and require excellent surgical technique to repair and restore blood flow in a timely fashion, prioritizing operative efficiency to decrease ischemia. This is of the utmost importance to obtain excellent results. Past and recent military conflicts have provided trauma surgeons with excellent experiences to develop a framework to manage these injuries, specifically the Vietnam War. If there are any lessons to be learned from the recent conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and, currently, Ukraine, it is that trauma surgeons must be prepared to effectively and rapidly operate on these injuries.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic Study; Level III.