Management of co-existing intra-abdominal disease in aortic surgery

the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms more than 5 cm in diameter is well accepted, but controversy surrounds the management of concomitant serious intra-abdominal lesions diagnosed in the perioperative period. This study was undertaken to demonstrate that synchronous surgery is feasible and safe in this group of patients.

in 1978 a decision was made to undertake combined operations on all patients with an aortic aneurysm of 5 cm or more in diameter and a significant non-vascular intra-abdominal lesion requiring surgery.

the case records of 676 patients who had aortic grafting for aneurysmal disease or the urgent management of occlusive disease between 1978 and 1998 were analysed retrospectively.

district general hospital.

fifty-six (8%) patients had co-existing intra-abdominal disease treated at the time of aortic graft surgery. There were three (5%) hospital deaths and seven patients required early reoperation. One patient developed a subphrenic abscess and there were three superficial wound infections. There has been no clinical evidence of aortic graft infection in this series.

this single centre experience with synchronous surgery demonstrates that it is safe and does not appear to predispose to an increased risk of graft infection.