ARTERIAL injuries of the femoral and popliteal arteries are repaired successfully in the majority of instances. Prolonged ischemia, tissue destruction, technical error, instability and sepsis are all well-recognized causes of either repair failure or loss of an extremity despite successful restoration of arterial patency. Another potential cause for loss of an injured extremity is inadequate deep venous return. Numerous clinical impressions from the conflicts in Korea 6, 7, 15 and Vietnam 2, 5, 12, 14 indicate that venostasis alone may jeopardize an extremity even when distal pulses and arterial patency have been restored and the aforementioned harmful conditions are absent.Although vein repair has been advised whenever possible,2 5, 6, 12,15 ligation is more commonly done.8 15 This problem was addressed again as late as 1967, when

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