Surgical complications caused by vascular closure devices

Introduction. The increasing number of arterial punctures for angiography has led to the widespread use of vascular closure devices. Patients and methods. Thirteen complications after the use of vascular closure devices on 5,000 patients were recorded from the beginning of January 2004 until the end of December 2004 (12x Angioseal (R), 1x Perclose (R)). Results. These patients, seven males and six females, had a mean age of 64.6 +/- 10.2 years. The complication involved an arterial occlusion in 11 cases and arterial bleeding in the other two. Endarterectomy had to be used for arterial occlusion, vascular suture for the bleeding. The operating time was 87.3 +/- 30 min, the ICU period 25 h, and the hospital stay 10.8 days. All extremities could be saved. In eight cases, the occlusion involved more than one femoral vessel. Conclusion. Embolectomy is not able to save extremities in cases of occlusion after the use of vascular closure devices. The complexity of the damage to the arteries makes endarterectomy necessary.