Pulses

Think it's a blood clot that travelled from the affected limb to the unaffected limb?

Nope, but I might be thinking of compartment syndrome if you mentioned pain. There might be a clot, but it wouldn't have traveled from one leg to the other.

I suspect compartment syndrome too.

The force required to cause a femur fracture is huge, and the left leg may have sustained an injury too that could lead to compartment syndrome.

I'm confused. The fractured limb has good pulses and the left (unaffected one) has no pedal pulse?

If that's correct, I sure hope he went to surgery for the Lt leg clot (which didn't travel from one leg to the other, BTW) and the Rt leg fx stat.

Angie,

You are correct. The unaffected/no fracture leg had no pulse.

The fractured leg was the warm/2+ pulse.

No surgery yet (was pending clearance) for 2-3 days.

I'm confused. The fractured limb has good pulses and the left (unaffected one) has no pedal pulse?

oops - it was unaffected leg that had no pulse?

It's a good thing someone else read more carefully than I did!

I'm confused as to why/how the unaffected limb had compartment syndrome. Unless the unaffected limb had a tibia fracture that went undiagnosed??? Theorizing here.

I will go out on a limb and suggest that something (perhaps a very large aneurysm, or a ruptured one) is wrong with the popliteal artery?

Hope he had an arterial US and surg consult for that stat!! :uhoh21:

Lack of pulse is a/w impaired arterial blood flow. A clot or fat embolus would not travel from one leg to another. I would suspect injury to the LLE that initially went undiagnosed. How did the R femur get fractured? MVA?

Are you sure you didn't get the extremities mixed up?

Virgo,

the R femur got fractured from a slip/fall at home, not MVA.

Is this just a DVT from lying in bed awaiting OR? Is this an older person? A diabetic?