Emergency thrombectomy in acute upper limb ischemia patient with diabetes mellitus

Background: Acute limb ischemia is a sudden decrease in limb blood perfusion with an onset of less than 14 days, most commonly occurs in lower extremities. Diabetes mellitus, one of diseases underlying peripheral artery disease, complicates the pathophysiology of acute limb ischemia. In this case report we present a patient with type 2 diabetes mellitus and acute limb ischemia in the left upper extremity that had successful thrombectomy treatment. Case presentation: A 58-year-old female patient came to the Emergency Care Unit of Dr. Soetomo General Hospital with the continuous pain in the five fingers to the palm of the left hand for the past two days. The numbness spread from the elbow to the left fingers, making them weak and difficult to grip. Those five fingers were pale and cold as well. The left hand had no pulsated radialis and ulnar artery, weak brachial pulse and undetected pulse oximetry result. The patient was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus since 2005 and has a controlled treatment. On the first day of hospitalization, the patient was scheduled for emergency thrombectomy at Dr. Soetomo General Hospital. Follow-up on the seventh-day post-surgery, the patient had no complaints of pain and pale in the left hand and the brachial, ulnar and radial arteries were palpable. Conclusion: Acute limb ischemia is uncommon in the upper extremities but we found that it has an excellent prognosis with early revascularization, even in a patient with diabetes mellitus. The treatment must be in conjunction with aggressive diabetes mellitus treatment to avoid acute limb ischemia worsening