Unsuspected vascular trauma: blunt arterial injuries.

Blunt arterial injury provides a tremendous challenge to the emergency physician and traumatologist. The overall incidence of these injuries, even with more modern and aggressive screening, is low. Often, they are clinically occult on initial presentation, and untreated, they frequently result in devastating consequences. Great potential exists, however, for averting these deadly consequences by recognizing patterns of injury, prompting expedient diagnosis by rapidly obtaining the appropriate diagnostic study and providing opportunity for specific therapy under the direction of the trauma surgeon.