To describe the triage of patients operated for non-ruptured and ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) before the endovascular era.Retrospective single-centre cohort study.All patients treated for an acute AAA between 1998 and 2001 and admitted to our hospital were evaluated in the emergency department for urgent AAA surgery. All time intervals, from the telephone call from the patient to the ambulance department, to the arrival of the patient in the operating theatre, were analysed. Intraoperative, hospital and 1-year survival were determined.160 patients with an acute AAA were transported to our hospital. Mean (SD) age was 71 (8) years, and 138 (86%) were men. 34 (21%) of these patients had symptomatic, non-ruptured AAA (sAAA) and 126 patients had ruptured AAA (rAAA). All patients with sAAA and 98% of patients with rAAA were operated upon. For the patients with rAAA, median time from telephone call to arrival at the hospital was 43 min (interquartile range 33-53 min) and median time from arrival at the hospital to arrival at the operating room was 25 min (interquartile range 11-50 min). Intraoperative mortality was 0% for sAAA and 11% for rAAA (p = 0.042), and hospital mortality was 12% and 33%, respectively (p = 0.014).A multidisciplinary unified strategy resulted in a rapid throughput of patients with acute AAA. Rapid transport, diagnosis and surgery resulted in favourable hospital mortality. Despite the fact that nearly all the patients were operated upon, survival was favourable compared with published data.
Introduction: Sufficient apposition and oversizing of the endograft are not regularly stated on post-EVAR (CTA) scan reports. In this study endograft apposition and neck enlargement (NE) after EVAR with an Endurant II(s) were analyzed and associated with supra- and infrarenal aortic neck morphology.
Unilateral leg swelling is most often caused by deep vein thrombosis but other conditions may mimic this disorder. We describe the case of a patient with symptoms of unilateral lower extremity swelling caused by external compression of the iliac vein by a mass originating from the iliopsoas muscle. Initially this mass was diagnosed as an iliopsoas hematoma in a patient using anticoagulants. However, it proved to be B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Compression was relieved by placement of an endovenous stent in the left common iliac vein. Endovenous stenting is a relatively new treatment modality that is used to treat post-thrombotic venous occlusions and chronic venous insufficiency. Only a few case series have been described of stenting of compressed pelvic veins by adjacent structures such as gynecological malignancies. Although stent patency lasted only four weeks in this patient, venous stent placement quickly reliefs symptoms and should therefore be considered as an option to bridge time to allow development of sufficient venous collaterals.
To assess mortality and treatment costs of a new management protocol with preferential use of emergency endovascular aneurysm repair (eEVAR) for acute abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA).From September 2003 until February 2005, 49 consecutive patients (45 men; mean age 71 years) with acute AAA were entered into a prospective study of a new management protocol that featured preferential use of eEVAR (n=18); patients with unsuitable anatomy or who were hemodynamically unstable underwent open repair (n=31). Mortality data and costs of treatment were compared in this mixed prospective group to a historical control group consisting of 147 patients (128 men; mean age 71 years) who underwent open repair from January 1998 to December 2001. All direct medical costs were included from the moment of admission until discharge from the hospital.Mortality in the mixed prospective group (18%) was lower than in the historical control group (31%), but the difference did not reach statistical significance (p=0.099). The mean total cost in the mixed prospective group was 17,164 euro compared to 21,084 euro in the historical open repair group (p=0.255).A preferential eEVAR protocol for acute AAA can decrease mortality and does not increase overall costs during initial treatment, but larger studies are needed to determine if these trends are statistically significant.
Abstract This report describes a case of a taxidermist who presented with sepsis and excruciating back pain a few weeks after contact with a deceased horse. Streptococcus equi subspecies zooepidemicus (SESZ) was isolated from patient’s blood and two isolated mycotic aneurysms were found. The first was located in the distal abdominal aorta and the second in the right common iliac artery. Treatment consisted of penicillin administration for 6 weeks and surgical debridement of the infected tissue combined with autologous vein reconstruction. The patient was infection-free without complaints 1 year after discharge and the venous reconstruction was patent. Reports in literature of bacteremia with SESZ leading to the development of mycotic aneurysms are very scarce and show that prognosis is generally unfavorable.
Fenestrated stent-grafts are designed to treat short-neck abdominal aortic aneurysms. Thanks to customized fenestrations, patency of side branches such as the renal arteries and the superior mesenteric artery can be maintained, whilst positioning the graft across these aortic branches. Stent-graft design improvement and technical refinements advanced the technique from experiment to a clinical application. In addition, further developments made it possible to treat juxtarenal, suprarenal, and some thoraco-abdominal aortic aneurysms (TAAA). This chapter discusses the principles of the technique, the refinements in recent years, and the resulting applications. In addition, our results with this technique are here summarized.
The aim of the present study was to review the literature reporting the use of the Hemobahn/Viabahn endograft (W. L. Gore and Assoc Inc., Flagstaff, AZ, USA) for endovascular treatment of popliteal artery aneurysms (PAA). A PubMed database search was performed looking for studies reporting endovascular treatment of PAA with the Hemobahn/Viabahn endograft within the period January 2000-December 2012. All relevant studies were independently assessed and all references were examined for potentially missed relevant reports. Studies were included if they reported experience with five patients or more. Eight studies with 222 patients (mean age 72.4 years, 92.3% male) and 251 PAA (mean diameter 2.9 mm, 14.3% symptomatic) were included. Thirteen cases (5.2%) were treated on an urgent basis, including three cases of ruptured PAA and 10 cases of acute limb ischemia. Initial technical success was 99.2%. The mean number of implanted endografts/PAA was 1.8 (range 1-4). Thirty-day mortality was 1 (0.4%) patient. Perioperative complications occurred in 1.6%, consisting of three access site hematomas and one acute endograft thrombosis. Cumulative mean follow-up duration was 36.9 months. During this period, a total of 46 endograft failures (42 occlusions, 4 stenoses) were observed within a mean postoperative time interval of 10.8 months. Cumulative primary and secondary patency rates were 85.6% and 93.4% at one year, and 78.5% and 90.4% at 2 years, respectively. Limb salvage rate during follow-up was 99.2%. Endoleak was noticed in 15 (6%) cases and endograft migration in 13 (5.2%) cases. Endograft fracture was reported in 14 (5.6%) cases, resulting in occlusion in six patients, and in type III and IV endoleaks in two patients. Secondary intervention during follow-up was required in 47 (18.7%) cases, including 32 reinterventions for endograft occlusion, four for endograft stenosis, and 11 for endoleak repair. Endovascular PAA repair with the Hemobahn/Viabahn endograft is feasible and safe yielding excellent initial technical success rates, minimum perioperative mortality and morbidity, and mid-term patency and limb salvage rates comparable to open surgery. These results suggest that a significant proportion of patients might benefit from endovascular PAA repair.
