Injury Extra (2008) 39, 44—46

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CASE REPORT Obturator disruption associated with acetabular fracture: A case study and anatomy review

Nabil A. Ebraheim a, Jiayong Liu a,*, Alan H. Lee a, Vishwas Patil a, Munier M.S. Nazzal b, Chris G. Sanford Jr.a a Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Toledo Health Science Campus, 3065 Arlington Avenue, Toledo, OH 43614 United States b Department of Vascular Surgery, University of Toledo Health Science Campus, 3065 Arlington Avenue, Toledo, OH 43614 United States

Accepted 30 May 2007

Introduction Case

Due to the extensive network of and A 31-year-old male was involved in a motor vehicle in the pelvic area, pelvic trauma often results in accident when his vehicle was struck on the driver’s injury to these vessels. These vascular injuries side by another vehicle going at high speed, and was may be due to acute disruption (i.e. laceration transferred to a level I trauma center. No loss of or rupture), an intimal tear leading to vessel consciousness was reported, but the patient was in thrombosis, or late formation of a pseudoaneur- haemorrhagic shock, and suffered a rupture of the ysm. While there are several case reports discuss- diaphragm, as well as an acetabular fracture ing major vessel injury after pelvic trauma, (Fig. 1). He was treated by routine anti-shock ther- disruption of the associated with apy and underwent an exploratory laparotomy for such injuries has rarely been reported. Therefore, repair of the left diaphragm injury. the current authors report a case of disruption of Following the exploratory laparotomy and repair the obturator artery in association with an acet- of the left diaphragm, the orthopaedic team began abular fracture. In order to clearly understand this an open reduction and internal fixation procedure injury, an anatomy review and literature review of to reduce the acetabular fracture through an ilioin- obturator artery injury is also included in the guinal approach. During this procedure, a large current report. dark colored, blood clot (approximately 5—6 cm in diameter) was observed deep within the . This clot was unintentionally disturbed with a suc- tion tube leading to sudden gush of fresh bleeding. Though an effort was made to determine the source * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 419 383 6558; fax: +1 419 383 3526. of the arterial bleeding, it was not possible due to E-mail address: [email protected] (J. Liu). the continuous bleeding and hence the area was

1572-3461 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under the Elsevier OA license. doi:10.1016/j.injury.2007.05.024 Obturator artery disruption associated with acetabular fracture 45

Anatomic review of the obturator artery

Anatomic dissection of 3 cadaveric (2 male, 1 female, aged 69, 73 and 65) was performed to look for the location of the obturator artery. The obtura- tor artery arises from the in the pelvis and courses antero-inferiorly on the lateral wall of the pelvis, to the upper part of the obturator foramen. It exits from the through the and divides into an anterior and a posterior branch. The anterior obturator artery supplies the obturator externus muscle and the adjacent bone. The posterior branch usually pro- vides an acetabular branch that enters into the acetabular notch and supplies tissue in the acetab- Figure 1 True pelvic A-P X-ray radiograph of the patient ular fossa.6 An oblique angiographic view of the demonstrating a left superior pubic ramus fracture and pelvic vessels from a normal patient is shown in associated acetabular fracture. Fig. 2. In the pelvis, the obturator artery sends one of its branches to the obturator internus muscle. packed. Intraoperative general surgery and vascu- Fig. 3 shows the close relationship between the lar consults were then obtained. At this time, the superior pubic rami and the obturator artery. patient had lost a large amount of blood and was A vascular anastamoses between the obturator being transfused with multiple blood products. Due artery and the external iliac or inferior epigastric to the patient’s haemodynamic instability, with a arteries, called the corona mortis, literally meaning blood pressure of 80/60, pressure was held on this crown of death has been reported at an incidence dressing until anesthesia personnel could adminis- ranging from 8 to 83%.3,8 This anastamosis fre- ter sufficient blood and blood products to ade- quently poses as a surgical problem for orthopaedic quately correct his hypovolemia. The patient’s surgeons operating around the superior pubic blood pressure had then dropped to 60/40, but ramus, because of the failure to ligate them as they then gradually rose to 115/80 after receiving 4—6 retract back into the obturator canal after being units of packed red blood cells and crystalloid injured. solutions. The patient discussed in the present case did not At this time, it was deemed proximal control have a corona mortis anastamosis, but because of should be gained, so the patient’s previous lapar- the close relationship between the obturator artery otomy incision was exposed to obtain access into the and the superior pubic ramus, fracture of the ante- abdominal cavity. Upon entry into the abdominal rior column extending into the superior pubic rami cavity, no blood was noted intra-abdominally. Pres- resulted in laceration of the artery, leading to hae- sure was held in the region of the left common iliac morrhage into the pelvic cavity. artery and this was noted to decrease the bleeding from the left groin wound. At this time, the overlying the sacropromontory on the left side was opened, and the left was dissected. The packing in the left groin was removed and it was found that the patient had sustained a lacera- tion of the left obturator artery, most likely caused by a bony spike of the superior pubic rami as a result of the trauma. This was ligated and repaired and no further active bleeding was noted from the left groin. The orthopaedic team then finished the open reduction internal fixation. All incisions were then Figure 2 Pelvic angiograph from the oblique view closed, and the patient was successfully taken off demonstrating the normal anatomy of the pelvic vessels. the operating room table and transferred to the Note the close association of the obturator artery with the surgical intensive care unit for monitoring. superior pubic ramus. 46 N.A. Ebraheim et al.

the arterial bleeding associated with pelvic frac- tures.10 However, there are also several drawbacks that have been cited in the literature, notably that angiography is a time-consuming procedure that prevents other interventions from taking place.7,5 In this particular case, it was decided that quick dissection to identify the arterial injury would pro- vide greater benefit to the patient versus angiogra- phy. It proved to be a life saving procedure in our patient. Therefore, if angiography cannot be used because of its time consuming, a life saving mod- ality would be to use an midline approach of the and temporary occlude the common iliac artery to control the bleeding, as was performed in Figure 3 Picture demonstrating the close relationship of this case. the obturator artery with the superior pubic rami. To conclude, a superior pubic ramus fracture can be associated with injury to the obturator artery. If Discussion the patient is stable, angiography may be consid- ered to rule out arterial bleeding. If a patient is There are limited case reports available documenting haemodynamically unstable, a midline abdominal vascular disruptions of the obturator artery in approach to detect and control the bleeding is a patients presenting with an acetabular fracture. A potential life saving intervention. previous article indicated that in patients with lateral compression injuries of the pelvis, bleeding of the anterior arterial vessels (pudendal or obturator) was References statistically more common than injuries to the pos- terior vessels, with the pudendal artery being the 1. Agolini B, Shah K, Jaffe J, et al. Material embolisation is a most commonly injured vessel.9 Other articles dis- rapid and effective technique for controlling pelvic fracture cuss the corona mortis, a vascular anomaly between haemorrhage. J Trauma 1997;43:395—9. 2 2. Daeubler B, Anderson SE, Leunig M, et al. Haemorrhage the external iliac and the obturator vessels. secondary to pelvic fracture: coil embolisation of an aberrant However, as this case indicates, due to the close obturator artery. J Endovasc Ther 2003;10(June (3)):676—80. anatomic relationship between the superior pubic 3. Darmanis S, Lewis A, Mansoor A, et al. Corona mortis: An ramus and obturator artery, a superior pubic rami anatomical study with clinical implications in approaches to fracture associated with an anterior column acet- the pelvis and . Clin Anat )2006;(August). epub. 4. Eastridge BJ, Starr A, Oinei JP, et al. The importance of abular fracture can possibly lead to obturator artery fracture pattern in guiding therapeutic decision-making in injury. Therefore, it is important to consider disrup- patients with haemorrhagic shock and pelvic ring disruptions. tion of the obturator artery in patients with a super- J Trauma 2002;53:446—50. ior ramus fracture close to the obturator canal. 5. Gansslen A, Giannoudis P, Pape HC. Haemorrhage in pelvic Furthermore, if a large clot is discovered intrao- fracture: who needs angiography? Curr Opin Crit Care 2003;9(December (6)):515—23. peratively, it is important for the surgeon to suspect 6. Gray Henry. Anatomy of the Human Body. Lea & Febiger: an injury of a nearby vessel and take adequate Philadelphia; 1918 (Bartleby.com, 2000, www.bartleby.com/ precautions while dealing with it. The surgeon 107/, November 21, 2006). should then proceed cautiously to identify the 7. Hak DJ. The role of pelvic angiography in evaluation and laceration. It is important to note that in this case, management of pelvic trauma. Orthop Clin N Am 2004;35: 439—43. the patient was haemodynamically stable until the 8. Okcu G, Eerkan S, Yercan HS, et al. The incidence and large clot was accidentally disturbed. location of corona mortis: a study on 75 cadavers. Acta Some authors have recommended the use of Orthop Scand 2004;75(1):53—5. angiography to determine the presence or absence 9. O’Neill PA, Riina J, Sclafani S, et al. Angiographic findings in of an arterial injury.4,1 If an artery is injured, arter- pelvic fractures. Clin Orthop Relat Res 1996;(August (329)): 60—7. iographic embolisation to stop the bleeding may be 10. Shapiro M, McDonald AA, Knight D, et al. The role of repeat conducted. A study by Shapiro et al. confirms that angiography in the management of pelvic fractures. J Trauma angiographic embolisation is effective in controlling 2005;58(February (2)):227—31.