Brachial Artery Injury in a Child following Closed Elbow Dislocation: Case Report of a Rare Injury

Abstract

Elbow dislocation, though a common orthopaedic emergency is rare with brachial artery injury and is even more uncommon in the paediatric age group. We present the case of a child who sustained trauma resulting in closed elbow dislocation with brachial artery injury. Elbow dislocation with brachial artery injury can present with palpable distal pulses and good capillary refill because of rich collaterals at the elbow. But this patient presented with signs of frank ischemia distally, and was managed with ipsilateral reverse cephalic vein graft. He had good volume pulses at one year follow-up. Patients with such presentation should have careful clinical and radiological assessment to exclude complicated elbow dislocation.

Keywords

• Elbow dislocation
• brachial
• vascular injury
• child