ABSTRACT
Percutaneous interventions are increasingly used for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. In vascular surgery, the Swedish Vascular Registry (Swedvasc) between 1987 and 1997 reported an increasing proportion of catheter interventions rising from a third to three-quarters in comparison with open procedures on the aortoiliac segment. In line with this change there seems to be an increasing number of iatrogenic vascular injuries reported. In a Swedish study in 1995 iatrogenic causes accounted for 20 per cent of all vascular injuries reported1 and an unpublished Swedvasc report valid for the year 2000 found a corresponding figure of 45 per cent. There was also a slightly higher incidence of iatrogenic vascular injuries in larger rather than in smaller hospitals and this is easily explained by the fact that the former treat the more complicated cases.
