Reconstruction of major arteries of extremities after war injuries.

This paper reports on the experience regarding the reconstruction of arterial injuries gained at the Department of Surgery, Osijek General Hospital during the first year of war against Croatia. In the period between May 1991 and May 1992, 57 wounded with 60 injuries of the major arteries of the extremities were admitted to the hospital, all of them directly from the battlefield or from the streets of Osijek. As there is no consensus on the application of autologous vein graft or allograft in arterial injury reconstruction, our choice of surgical management and early results are reviewed. In the surgical repair of 60 injured major arteries of the extremities, 17 allografts and 19 autologous vein grafts were used. In conclusion, our results indicate that the use of allografts for arterial injury reconstruction may be useful in a highly contaminated area of war wound.