Damage to the lateral cutaneous femoral nerve after transfemoral angiography]

We report on two patients with lesions of the lateral cutaneous nerve of the thigh after transfemoral angiography. Symptoms were hypesthesia, dysesthesia and hypalgesia of the right lateral thigh. One patient had no hematoma, the other a hematoma of the medial thigh which did not enlarge thigh circumference. Both patients had had a tight pressure bandage applied for 24 hours. There were no signs of a femoral nerve lesion. Both patients were severely distressed by paresthesia. The numbness subsided after three weeks in one patient, but pain persisted. The other patient had symptoms for over six months. The lateral cutaneous nerve of the thigh is located distinctly lateral to the puncture site in transfemoral angiography. Hence we suggest that the nerve lesion was caused neither by the puncture itself nor by a hemorrhage, but by the tight bandage.