[Acute ischemia of the upper extremity caused by axillary contused trauma. Report of 3 cases].

Blunt trauma to the axillary artery is infrequently associated to unstable proximal humeral fractures or anterior dislocation of the shoulder. We report 3 patients who developed this complication. One of them had associated neurologic injury. All patients required a saphenous vein interposition graft and the patient with neurologic injury required surgical decompression of the brachial plexus. The results of arterial repair were excellent. The patient with neurologic injury recovered significantly after decompression of the plexus, since he had not partial or complete transection of the plexus which is usually a permanent lesion. Our observations support that patients with axillary lesion associated with neurologic deficits should undergo prompt exploratory surgery.