Failure of Major Upper Extremity Replantation Due to COVID-19-Related Arterial Thrombosis

Coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the new severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that emerged in Wuhan, was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. COVID-19 has many different clinical manifestations. One of them is arterial hypercoagulopathy. Although its mechanism is not fully explained, acute thrombosis and thromboembolism can be seen in patients. In this study, we present a case who was amputated due to the development of arterial thrombosis on the 10th day following infection with coronavirus, despite successful replantation after traumatic above-elbow amputation. After replantation on the seventh day, it was learned that the patient’s husband was positive for COVID-19 and had come to visit the patient. For this reason, we performed reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to confirm the patient’s COVID-19 status. We found that the patient, who was asymptomatic, was positive by RT-PCR for COVID-19. On the 10th day after the operation, it was observed that the blood circulation of the replanted extremity was impaired, although it had been perfect until that day. Emergency embolectomy and vascular reanastomosis were planned for the patient. Although we generally observe thrombosis at an end-to-end anastomosis site, massive axillary arterial thrombosis was detected at the proximal end of the vascular anastomosis. Upon development of tachycardia, hypotension, and metabolic acidosis after embolectomy and vascular reanastomosis, the decision was made to amputate the replanted limb to reduce the risk of life-threatening complications. To our knowledge, this is the first such COVID-19-related complication on upper extremity replantation in the literature.