Blunt popliteal arterial injury is uncommon and is usually associated with surrounding soft tissue and orthopedic injuries, which may complicate traditional open operative repair. We present the successful management of a blunt popliteal artery injury through an endovascular approach, where we imaged the lesion, extracted the thrombus, protected against distal embolization, and performed a balloon angioplasty to the intimal lesion. Our approach is the first documented in the literature in which endovascular repair of a blunt popliteal artery injury was performed successfully in an acutely ischemic extremity. Using a filter wire is a novel way to prevent distal embolization during manipulation.
