Therapeutic ligature of hypogastric arteries: color Doppler follow-up.

Purpose: To evaluate the interest of color Doppler sonography in the watchi ng of therapeutic ligature of hypogastric arteries. Patients and methods: Thirteen female patients presenting a serious haemorr hage in the post-partum and bein managed by bilateral hypogastric ligature, have undergone a systematic protocol of investigation involving a Doppler sonography in the fourth day after intervention and then monthly until repe rmeabilization of the internal iliac arteries. Results: In all cases, the first exam showed down-side the ligature, a flow inversion with an important pelvic collateral circulation. The next Dopple r exams showed repermealization of the hypogastric arteries after an averag e interval of 5 months (extremes: 1 to 6 months). Conclusion: Color Doppler showed the resolvent charecter of therapeutic lig ature of the hypogastric arteries and may estimate with sufficient accuracy the interval of repermeabilisation.