Vascular complications after total hip arthroplasty.

Four cases of vascular complications in connection with total hip replacement are reported and another 25 cases from the literature summarized. Acute intraoperative injuries most often give rise to severe haemorrhage. Delayed injuries with pseudoaneurysm formation or thrombosis give rise to hip pain, distal ischaemia or haemorrhage when a prosthesis is extracted. There is a dominance of female patients and left-sided operations and cases complicated with infections and reoperations. Aetiologic and therapeutic considerations are discussed.