Non-traumatic lower limb vascular complications in endurance athletes. Review of literature.

OBJECTIVES: To review the importance, clinical features, investigations, management and prognosis of non-traumatic vascular injuries, affecting the lower limbs of endurance athletes.
DESIGN: Review of literature.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: A literature search was conducted from Medline, Pubmed, the National Electronic Library for Health, Google and Yahoo search engines for related articles and case reports regarding non-traumatic vascular complications involving the lower limb of endurance athletes.
CONCLUSIONS: Non-traumatic vascular complications affecting the lower limbs include endofibrosis, stenosis/kinking of iliac arteries, dissection of external iliac artery, adductor canal syndrome, popliteal entrapment syndrome, chronic exertional compartment syndrome and effort-induced venous thrombosis. These are important as they affect athletes at the peak of their career and can be confusing to diagnose. The management is relatively well documented and produces good results in short term but the long term results are not known.