PREHOSPITAL CARE
Haemorrhage from femoral vein cannula: an additional potential source of haemorrhage among intravenous drug users
West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust, Brierley Hill, West Midlands, UK
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to Dr R Cooke, West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust, Millenium Point, Waterfront Business Park, Waterfront Way, Brierley Hill, West Midlands DY5 1LX, UK; roger.cooke@wmas.nhs.uk
Accepted 17 December 2008
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Use of the femoral vein for self-administration of drugs is increasing among intravenous drug users. We report an unusual source of haemorrhage in an habitual intravenous drug user involved in trauma.
In the early hours of the morning a small car was involved in a high-speed head-on collision with a lorry. The driver was unrestrained and, following the collision, was positioned in the front passenger footwell with his back resting against the inside of the passenger door, legs drawn up and feet in the driver’s side footwell. The ambient temperature was –2.5°C.
The patient’s level of consciousness fluctuated between alert and responsive to pain. The airway was clear with spontaneous breathing and bilateral air entry. The blood pressure was normal with a pulse rate of 68 bpm and the pupils were normal and reactive to light. The abdomen was soft to palpation. The upper limbs appeared intact, with multiple scarring
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
Relevant Article
- Primary survey
- Steve Goodacre
Emerg. Med. J. 2009 26: 625.[Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
