Outcome of major lower-limb arterial injuries presenting to a single unit in a peripheral setting in Sri Lanka

Introduction: Anuradhapura is located in the North Central province of Sri Lanka which is about 200 kilometres away from Colombo which is the commercial capital of Sri Lanka. About 22 to 25 arterial repairs are done for major limb vessel injuries (popliteal, femoral, iliac, brachial, axillary and subclavian arteries) for 1 year at The Anuradhapura Teaching Hospital. Common causes for major lower Limb arterial injuries include Road Traffic Accidents (RTA) and Trap Guns. Trap Gun is an improvised illegal device used to protect crops from animals in Sri Lanka. This is very prevalent in North Central province of Sri Lanka where the Teaching Hospital Anuradhapura is located. Materials and Methods: This study is a retrospective case note based study reporting the outcome of patients presenting with major lower Limb arterial injuries to the Teaching Hospital Anuradhapura including the injuries caused by the trap gun. Results: 24 patients were included with major lower limb arterial injury following trauma. 8 (33.3%) injuries were following trap gun. Two patients following trap gun injury underwent amputation whereas no one underwent amputation when the cause of injury was other than trap gun. This difference in outcome was significant (P 0.0277). Conclusions: Therefore trap gun injury results in poor outcome probably due to associated severe soft issue injury and contamination.