To our knowledge, this study represents the largest single-center analysis of iatrogenic popliteal injuries.
In our case series, the high rate of limb preservation and function is striking; in particular, that none of the patients required an amputation stands in stark contrast to previously described amputation rates of up to 42% (6, 7).
Nevertheless, some serious complications and possible reinterventions cause increased morbidity for the patient. There is a risk of long-term consequences, such as swelling, chronic pain and open wound treatment.
Patient selection criteria can provide preoperative guidance to anticipate an increased risk for vascular injury. A predisposition to intraoperative injury of the popliteal artery exists for patients with older age, increasing ASA status, obesity, and especially in the presence of preexisting PAD, as well as prior orthopedic or vascular surgery in the target area (8–10).
Vascular imaging (e.g., CTA) is recommended preoperatively in the presence of revision surgery or a known anatomic variability to map the course of the vessel in relation to the surgical site. It has been shown to minimize the risk of injury for total hip arthroplasty after vascular imaging (11).
Three injuries in our series occurred in the setting of orthopedic revision procedures or preexisting PAD; in one patient even both risk factors were present.
A vascular variability is often not known in advance, as it usually does not cause any symptoms. Outflow variations of crural vessels occur in approximately 10% of the total population according to angiographic studies. In less than 2%, there is high branching of the anterior or posterior tibial artery. This means, there are two vessels present at the level of the knee joint gap instead of one. The anatomical variation runs usually closer to the periosteum, exposing it to injury during knee surgery (12, 13). In the present investigation we observed two patients with high branching, illustrating the frequency of injury in relation to the regular vascular course.
Palpation and documentation of the foot pulses should be performed preoperatively in every patient. Especially in cases of prediagnosed PAD or diabetes hemodynamics should be evaluated by a vascular physician to assess the severity of macro- or micorangiopathy or even media sclerosis. In the event of complications, knowledge of the preoperative blood flow situation supports the assessment of clinical symptoms.
We were unable to obtain information on the preoperative pulse status from any of the available patient files, which may reflect a lack of documentation or a low awareness of the importance of preexisting vascular conditions.
A tourniquet should not be applied in presence of peripheral bypass, because it may lead to graft occlusion (4).
Various recommendations exist to prevent vascular injury during orthopedic surgery. Whether flexion in the knee joint has a protective effect in HTO has not been proven.
In general, it is recommended to use a retractor on the dorsal tibia during sawing, which should be guided close to the periosteum (14).
In an experimental study, it was postulated that the risk of vascular injury was reduced when the saw cut was angulated 10° ventrally (15–17).
Vascular injury may clinically present itself by hemorrhage and/or ischemia, as well as pseudoaneurysm formation (3). The time to diagnosis can range from emergent/urgent cases to incidental findings, which can have an influence on therapeutic decisions. Basically, a distinction is made between sharp and blunt traumas. Sharp injuries are only noticeable by bleeding when the vessel wall is completely opened. Since the procedures are often performed with tourniquet, the detection of bleeding may be difficult. Also, in our study, only a few patient files contained mentioning of intraoperative abnormalities.
In case of patient transfer to a vascular surgery department with an applied tourniquet, the duration of ischemia should be recorded and is of meaning for the subsequent vascular treatment.
Postprocedural clinical review of pulse status, motor function, and sensitivity is mandatory following orthopedic surgery. Assessment of sensorimotor function may not be adequately possible when pain catheters or local anesthetic procedures are used.
Thus, palpation of the foot pulses or assessment of the ABI, has an important role in the objectification of perfusion. Since TKA usually affects middle-aged or older patients, ABI can be influenced by preexisting PAD or media sclerosis in diabetic patients and result in incorrect measurements and therefore should be compared to the preoperative status. In our study four patients suffered from PAD.
In the presence of leg ischemia, the reestablishment of blood flow is of importance to prevent functional impairment and should be obtained within six hours.
This stresses the need for timely availability of vascular surgery expertise, especially in the absence of a vascular department on-site.
Hence, it comes as no surprise that in Germany the certification as an endoprosthetics center requires mandatory cooperation with a vascular surgeon (18).
Blunt trauma can result from exposure to surgical instruments or extreme patient positioning. Thus, intima injury can cause local thrombus accumulation and lead to ischemia.
Arteriosclerotically affected vessels are particularly at risk due to the loosening of plaque components by local manipulation (4).
If not all vessel wall layers are affected by the trauma, spontaneous healing or formation of pseudoaneurysms may occur. These are encapsulated hemorrhages that often only cause symptoms by compression of surrounding structures, including local nerve damage or venous thrombosis. On average, pseudoaneurysms are only discovered after 15 days in the sonographic workup when deep vein thrombosis or compartment syndrome is suspected. The artery should also be assessed in all cases of the suspected diagnoses mentioned above (19, 20).
In our series, two of the three pseudoaneurysms were also diagnosed only in the subacute interval.
Algorithm for the orthopedic surgery team
Based on our interdisciplinary experience in dealing with this complication, we have created an algorithm for postoperative control and examinations to be initiated after completion of the orthopedic procedure and/or in the setting of vascular injury (Fig. 6).
If the injury is noticed intraoperatively or the patient develops hemodynamical instability, basic measures to secure the circulation should be taken first. Close cooperation with the anesthesia department is recommended. If a vascular surgeon is available, he should be called in immediately. Otherwise, rapid contact with the nearest vascular surgery department is necessary.
In case of abnormalities in the postoperative monitoring, such as unusual hematoma formation or CMS abnormalities, CCDS should be performed if available and, depending on the findings, vascular surgery expertise should be obtained.
Algorithm for vascular physicians
The algorithm for the subsequent vascular treatment is visualized in Fig. 7.
If the suspected diagnosis is clinically confirmed, imaging is necessary to estimate the exact location and type of vascular injury. As described in the results section, the different modalities are used incongruently. We recommend DSA over CT angiography, especially after TKA, because artifacts caused by the inserted prosthesis make it difficult or even impossible to assess the popliteal artery in the knee joint gap. This can be done in an angiosuite or in (hybrid-) OR, depending on site conditions. The choice of therapy is based on clinical assessment of the patient's condition and injury severity. In emergent or urgent cases of haemodynamic instability or already manifest compartment syndrome, surgical therapy may be preferred.
Hybrid surgery was only established during the course of our investigation, therefore only one case could already be treated accordingly.
Vascular reconstruction options
Various surgical and interventional procedures are available for vascular reconstruction (21).
The selection of the respective treatment modality should be done interdisciplinary and individually and depends on the on-site circumstances and availability of vascular expertise, as well as patient condition and severity of the injury.
Intervention has the advantage of less invasiveness and shorter treatment duration (22), which was confirmed by the significantly shorter intervention times in our investigation. In addition, the procedure is viable without general anesthesia. However, due to the patient’s immediate postoperative condition, at least an anesthesia stand-by is recommended. In individual cases, rapidly available endovascular therapy, as stentgraft implantation in severe bleeding, can also serve as a bridging measure until definitive surgical repair (23).
Patient age also influences the choice of procedure. In younger patients, stent implantation into the popliteal motion segment should be viewed critically with regard to long-term open rates. In the present study, there was a trend toward endovascular treatment in elderly patients.
Due to the small number of cases, specific data on patency rates after trauma are difficult to obtain. Since also patients with a healthy vascular system are affected by iatrogenic injury, the comparison with PAD-patients is of limited value (6). A case series of three popliteal stent implantations for pseudoaneurysm formation after trauma reported a 100% open rate at 17 months (20).
In cases with thrombus formation caused by an intimal tear or plaque dislocation an interventional approach with aspiration thrombectomy should be considered. Depending on the size of the lesion and preexisting arteriosclerosis the additional implantation of a stent(graft) may be necessary.
The length of inpatient stay in our collective was not significantly longer after surgery (19 days) than after intervention (14 days). Compared to usual hospitalization after elective vascular procedures the length of stay is longer in this collective. This is mainly caused by prolonged reconvalescence after emergency treatment and the longer wound treatment in case of fasciotomy, which makes it difficult to compare to elective procedures.
The development of postischemic compartment syndrome after arterial popliteal injury of various etiologies is common because it often affects vascularly healthy patients who do not have a preexisting collateral circulation.
The indication for fasciotomy as a preventive treatment should be broad to allow the swelling muscles to expand and thus avoid permanent damage to surrounding structures (2, 24). If clinical findings are unsure to assess due to the postoperative status and anesthesiologic procedures, a fasciotomy should be performed. In case of manifest compartment syndrome the procedure is obligatory.
Post-procedural anticoagulation or anti-platelet therapy is necessary after revascularization in most cases. Although no recommendations exist for these rare cases, physicians should consider guidelines for blood thinning medication following PAD-treatment as well as individual aspects. For patients with non-arteriosclerotic vessels a shorter time for medication may be considered. In our institution we prefer anticoagulation only for bypasses exceeding the knee joint. For stentgraft implantation in the popliteal segment DAPT (dual anti-platelet therapy) is usually administered. Nevertheless, individual factors may oftentimes affect the decision for the medication. An overview on the different therapeutic schemes we used is shown in Table 3.
Follow-up examinations and re-interventions
Follow-up is important because of the high reintervention rate of 19%. Cause for reintervention was occlusion of the reconstruction in all cases. Two patients were treated endovascularily initially as well as re-intervened. One of those patients suffered from preexisting PAD and developed a re-stenosis. The other patient needed two re-interventions for stentgraft clotting. In one case a bypass occlusion occurred, which was treated by implantation of a new bypass. All cases were successfully re-intervened.
Analogous to other vascular reconstructions, clinical control is recommended at least once a year, to detect and treat stenosis formation at an early stage, for example.
Because these patients often have not had vascular treatments before and are therefore not used to annual examinations, awareness of lifelong follow-up and need of anticoagulant medication is important. In our investigation, eight patients present regularly up to today. During follow-up, two patients died of nonprocedure-associated diseases, and the remaining six discontinued follow-up for unknown reasons.
Limitations
The main limitation in the validity of the study arises from the small number of cases. In addition, retrospective analysis of the affected patients may not be complete because a wide variety of ICD-codes was used for documentation. Thus, an unknown number of unreported cases is possible. A prospective trauma registry, as established at our hospital since 2016, offers advantages in this regard. Also, a national registry would add further evidence.