Rescue of the limb after accidental injection of diazepam into femoral artery

Diazepam usually causes severe tissue damage resulting in the loss of limb [3,8,9] We report on a 31-year-old drug user who accidently injected himself 40 mg of water-dissolved diazepam into his femoral artery. In the emergency department, he received immediately 5000 units of heparin followed by a continuous infusion, a single-shot femoral nerve block (35 mL), and an intra-arterial injection (5 mL) of xyclocaine 1%.