A Rare Case of Survival from Inferior Vena Cava Injury

Inferior vena cava (IVC) is the most commonly injured abdominal vessel in blunt and penetrating abdominal traumas, and its injury carries a very high rate of mortality. Hemodynamic instability at presentation, poor response to resuscitation, the anatomical level of venacaval injury, low Glasgow Coma Score, and concomitant vascular and visceral injuries are the main factors predicting the outcome of the patient. The primary surgical intervention needed is the control of hemorrhage followed by the repair of IVC defect, which may be done by venorrhaphy, ligation, use of patch or grafts, and other complicated procedures. Each of these techniques carries its own merits and demerits. This case report is of a patient who survived an infrarenal tear of IVC caused by a firearm injury that was repaired by venorrhaphy at a hospital of Pakistan with limited cardiac and endovascular facilities.