Acute limb ischemia secondary to popliteal artery thrombosis following total knee arthroplasty – Limb salvage by endovascular therapy

Abstract

Popliteal artery thrombosis is a very rare complication in total knee arthroplasty (TKA) surgery, which is more commonly caused by indirect mechanism than direct mechanism. If not treated early, it leads to limb amputation and rarely may lead to mortality. Although bypass grafting is the mainstay of treatment done in many cases, endovascular therapy is a potential alternative in acute setting for limb salvage. There are only few case reports of endovascular therapy in this setting. We report a case of acute limb ischemia due to popliteal artery thrombosis immediately after TKA which is salvaged by endovascular therapy with endoluminal thrombosuction and balloon inflation only.

Keywords

• Acute limb ischemia
• endovascular therapy
• popliteal artery occlusion
• total knee arthroplasty