Angiography was done on sixteen patients with excessive bleeding from
the wound following major hip surgery. In ten patients the bleeding site
was so identified and the vessel was embolized with autologous clot or
surgical gelatin. In six patients no site of bleeding could be seen. There
was one angiographic complication: distal embolization to the popliteal
artery. We concluded that angiography often may be helpful in localizing
the site of excessive postoperative bleeding from a wound, and
transcatheter embolization of the bleeding vessel then can be effective in
controlling such bleeding.