Ipsilateral femoral vein compression: a contraindication to thrombin injection of femoral pseudoaneurysms

Development of a femoral artery pseudoaneurysm occurs in 0.6% to 3.2% of interventional procedures. Nonsurgical treatment has consisted of ultrasound scan-directed compression and, more recently, direct thrombin injection into the pseudoaneurysm cavity to achieve thrombosis. Reported complications after thrombin injection are rare. We report two cases of femoral venous compression associated with pseudoaneurysm injection and review the literature. A 76-year-old man and an 86-year-old man both underwent thrombin injection of pseudoaneurysms compressing the ipsilateral common femoral vein. Both patients were diagnosed with deep venous thrombosis and subsequently needed surgical exploration for repair of the pseudoaneurysm and release of the venous compression. At exploration, both were found to have significant inflammation surrounding the femoral vessels, which made vessel exposure challenging. Because of the venous outflow obstruction involved in femoral pseudoaneurysms with secondary venous compression and the surgical difficulty caused by surrounding inflammation, avoidance of thrombin injection in favor of early surgical intervention is suggested.