The changing face of femoral artery false aneurysms

Objectives. To review the aetiology and method of treatment of all femoral artery false aneurysms from a single centre during the last 9 years. Design. Retrospective case-note study. Methods. All patients with a diagnosis of false aneurysm were identified from the hospital data-base between January 1995 and September 2003. A manual search of the case-notes was performed, and data collected on the location, cause and method of repair of the false aneurysm. For all patients with a diagnosis of femoral artery false aneurysm, the patients' medical and drug history and admission time attributable to the false aneurysm were recorded. Results. One hundred and seven patients were identified. Seventy-nine had false aneurysms of the femoral artery. The majority (40.5%) were caused by coronary angiography, the second commonest cause being breakdown of previous graft anastomosis (29.1%). Over time, the method of treatment became increasingly radiological (most commonly ultrasound-guided thrombin injection), resulting in a significantly reduced hospital admission time (P = 0.018). Conclusions. The incidence of femoral artery false aneurysms appears to be increasing. This is largely a result of an increase in the number of cardiac interventional and diagnostic procedures performed. The introduction of ultrasound-guided thrombin-injection has reduced the inpatient stay of patients with femoral false aneurysms.