Axillary artery injury: report of two cases and review of the literature.

These are the cases of two young men, 21- and 28-year old, who sustained penetrating stab injuries to their axillary arteries. Both patients presented initially with profuse bleeding and were in a state of shock. The first patient underwent initial emergency surgery to control his bleeding whereby deep stitches were inserted around the axillary vessels and nerves and ended up with permanent iatrogenic Median nerve palsy. The bleeding in the second patient was controlled initially by compression dressing and he underwent successful vascular repair of the axillary artery with full recovery of his upper limb function. In this paper, we are discussing the initial management problem of these cases and the results of similar injuries and their repair in the literature.