Clinical case
A 55-year-old patient, suffering from insulin-dependent diabetes for 10 years with suboptimal diabetic balance, and with no history of surgery, was admitted to our orthopaedic department for a non-painful swelling on the dorsum of the right foot evolving for 3 months. Physical examination revealed a non-hot pulsatile swelling of a very deformed right foot with radiographic signs of osteoarticular destruction (Figure 1A, 1B).
Regarding the pulsating nature of the swelling, we performed an arteriography that showed a false aneurysm of the dorsal pedal artery in relation to the anterior aspect of the ankle (Figure 2A). The False aneurysm was treated by embolization (Figure 2B).
Only 33 cases of foot and ankle false aneurysms have been reported.1 The causes were related to orthopedic foot surgery or ankle sprain. The occurrence of false aneurysm in our case could be explained by low-energy strain injuries resulting from skeletal abnormalities of the Charcot foot.2
The hypothesis of false arterial aneurysm must be part of the diagnoses to be evoked among infectious or tumoral etiologies because manipulating these false aneurysms surgically can lead to significant bleeding that is difficult to control.
Acknowledgments: None
Conflict of interest: None
Keywords: false aneurysm, Charcot foot
Funding: This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Data availability Statement: not applicable
Ethics statement: This clinical image is the authors’ own original work, which has not been previously published elsewhere