Emergency thoracotomies in traumatic cardiac arrests following blunt trauma - experiences from a German level I trauma center.

Purpose: Resuscitative thoracotomies (RT) are the last resort to reduce mortality in patients suffering severe trauma. In recent years, indications for RT have been extended from penetrating to blunt trauma. However, discussions on efficacy are still ongoing, as data on this rarely performed procedure are often scarce.

Giant brachial artery aneurysm as a rare complication of a dialysis shunt.

Our patient exhibited a large tumor on his right upper arm where his former dialysis access site had been. X-ray, Doppler ultrasound, and magnetic resonance imaging scan could not fully reveal the nature of that tumor. Eventually, a surgical approach showed a giant aneurysm of the inflowing brachial artery to a partially obliterated arteriovenous fistula.