ABSTRACT
Postoperative Wound Hematoma These two illustrations show an AP (A) and lateral view (B) of a patient who developed a postoperative wound hematoma on the first day. This particular patient had a prosthetic cardiac valve and was maintained on full heparinization postoperatively before being converted back to coumadin. He was neurologically intact and had no airway problems. We were concerned about an aneurysm, of course; however duplex scanning confirmed an intact carotid repair with no evident problems, and the hematoma resolved spontaneously without further issues. I feel strongly that a wound hematoma such as this needs to be investigated in some way to confirm the integrity of the repair, whether by duplex, MRA, CTA, or catheter angiography.
