VASA. Zeitschrift für Gefässkrankheiten
-
A 39 year old male comes to the emergency room because of rapidly increasing pain in his left leg one hour after the injection of Flunitrazepam into a groin vessel. There is a history of drug abuse for more than 15 years. The left leg is cool and shows intense patchy cyanosis. ⋯ The accidental injection of drugs into the femoral artery may result in the clinical picture of acute limb ischemia without occlusion of the big vessels of the leg. This obviously occurs most often with benzodiazepines, especially when crushed tablets soluted in water are injected. Color-coded duplex sonography is able to show open vessels within minutes and prevents ineffective surgical interventions.