Vascular complications following total hip arthroplasty. A review of the literature and a report of two cases.

Major vascular, nonthromboembolic complications of total hip arthroplasty are rare: only 23 have been reported over the last 20 years. This is a report of two additional cases. In an 84-year-old woman, the external iliac artery was lacerated following removal of the acetabular component. Two such injuries have been reported previously, but this is the first case that resulted from a posterolateral approach to the hip. In a 69-year-old woman, a heretofore unrecorded complication consisted of external iliac vein compression occurring 20 months after total hip arthroplasty and culminating in iliac artery thrombosis and an ischemic foot. A below-knee amputation was performed after removal of the total hip components.