Management options for penetrating injuries to the great veins of the neck and superior mediastinum.

Between January 1984 and January 1986, 74 patients were treated for stab or gunshot injury to the great veins in the neck and superior mediastinum. Veins involved in the neck were the subclavian and internal jugular and in the mediastinum, the brachiocephalic and subclavian vein and the superior vena cava. Most patients presented in a state of shock. Twenty-nine were bleeding too rapidly to resuscitate adequately and required emergency operation while in a moribund state. Twenty-five had arteriovenous fistulas and were hemodynamically stable. Direct venous repair was attempted if simple lateral suture or end to end anastomosis could be rapidly done. If complex repairs were required, ligation was performed. Fifty-five veins were ligated on this basis, including 14 brachiocephalic trunks, nine proximal subclavian veins and one superior vena cava cephalad to the azygos. Nineteen were repaired. Two patients died after ligation and one patient after repair, all as a result of the effects of massive hypovolemia. Edema of the upper limb developed in two patients in each treatment group in whom the distal part of the subclavian vein had been involved. The edema resolved within five to seven days. Chronic venous stasis problems did not develop in any patient during the two to 26 month follow-up period.