Lazar B Davidovic^1,2 , Slobodan Cvetkovic^1,2 , Miroslav Markovic^1,2 , Nikola Ilic ^1,2, Andreja Dimić^1,2 , Igor Koncar ^1,2 , Milos Sladojevic^1,2 , Ivan Tomic ^1,2 *, Perica Mutavdzic ^1,2 and Marko Dragas ^1,2

¹ Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Serbia
² Clinic for Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, University Clinical Center of Serbia, Serbia.

*Corresponding Author: Ivan Tomić, Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Clinic for Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, University Clinical Center of Serbia, Serbia.

Received: February 05, 2026; Published: March 26, 2026

At the beginning of the 20th century, Serbian surgeon Vojislav Subbotić published his experience in treating peripheral vascular injuries from the Balkan Wars (1912-1913). At the end of the 20th century, former Yugoslavia experienced civil war, being followed by NATO bombing of Serbia. Because of these unpleasant facts, an entire generation of vascular surgeons had the opportunity to treat a significant number of wartime vascular injuries. In addition, a significant number of civilian vascular injuries have been treated at Clinic for Vascular and Endovascular Surgery of the University Clinical Center of Serbia-Belgrade (Clinic) over the past few decades. In the absence of a national registry, the most reliable data related to vascular injuries in Serbia can be found in the database of that Clinic. The first part of this database contains 413 peripheral arterial injuries treated between 1992 and 2002. Of these injuries, 140 were war-related, while 273 were civilian. Between 2002 and 2020, an additional 222 civilian peripheral arterial injuries were included in this registry. Historically, the treatment of vascular trauma has gone through three phases of development. The first focused on saving the life of the injured person. The second also included limb salvage, and the third included salvage of a functional extremity. The main goal of this article is to present what we have learned regarding the treatment of peripheral arterial injuries (strategy, diagnosis, vascular repair, complex injuries, late revascularization, early and long-term complications, pediatric vascular trauma). Endovascular procedures improved significantly the treatment of peripheral vascular trauma. The main indications for endovascular treatment after peripheral vascular trauma include surgically inaccessible arterial lesions, hemostasis from medium to small arteries, early failures after open repair, as well as long-term complications after open repair. However, in majority of cases open surgery is a method of choice (hemodynamic instability; mid-to-small arteries lesions; distal residual thrombosis; arterial contusion; prolonged ischemia; complex injuries; associated venous injuries; failures after endovascular repair), especially referring to children and younger patients. For this reason young generations of vascular surgeons should be educated in open vascular surgery during endovascular era.

Keywords: Vascular Trauma; Peripheral; Treatment

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Citation

Citation: Ivan Tomic., et al. “35-Years Single Center Experience in the Treatment of Civil and War Peripheral Vascular Trauma". Acta Scientific Medical Sciences 10.4 (2026): 27-36.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2026 Benny Nanda Kurniawan., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.