Vascular injuries combined with long bone fractures have been infrequent and difficult to manage. Despite of recent advancement in the vacular repair and fixation of fracutres, it is not easy to save the limb. In order to identify the factor
associated
with amputation or salvage of the affected limb, a retrospective study of 14 patients whose injure vessels were repaired primarily at the time of bone fixation was perfomed. The ischemic time, the degree of soft tissue or bone injury and the
method
of
treatment were evaluated with relation to the limb salvage, 4(28.6%) of that 14 long bone fractures needed secondary amputation due to a vasucular insufficiency. In 3 of 4 fractures, in which vascular repair were delayed over 24 hours, afftected
limbs
were amputated later. Thus, the ischemnic time was determined as an important factor for limb salvage after the vascular injury associated with the long bone fracture(p<0.05). However, the degree of the soft tissue or bone injury and the method
of
treatment were not correlated with the limb salvage.
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