Diagnosis and treatment of iatrogenic femoral artery pseudoaneurysms.

Color Doppler is the procedure of choice for the diagnosis of iatrogenic femoral artery pseudoaneurysms. Although surgery is still necessary in a limited number of patients, most can be treated with ultrasound-guided thrombin injection. Success exceeds 90% and complications are much lower than surgery. Although rare, the major complication is embolization into the femoral artery. This can be minimized by using as little thrombin as possible, and by avoiding small pseudoaneurysms with short necks.