ABSTRACT
Fortunately, the devastating occurrence of a significant vascular injury is a rare event in lumbar spine surgery. Although Mixter and Barr described lumbar discectomy as an operative technique to treat prolapse of the intervertebral disk herniation in 1934 (1), it was not until 1945 that published reports began to emerge regarding vascular injury as a complication of lumbar discectomy (2). In 1948 Holscher reported five cases of injury to the great vessels, pointing out the potential grave consequences of this type of injury (3). In his report a case of a pseudoaneurysm is described in detail and other cases are alluded to, some of which resulted in death. Since then numerous reports have been published describing arterial and venous injury as well as the formation of ateriovenous fistulas (4,5).
