Cardiovascular interventions during oncologic surgery: technical principles and mid-term survival

While the veins are primarily affected by compressing or invasive tumors, the arteries usually undergo only a less pronounced stenosis, due to the higher internal pressure. However, some tumors infiltrate the arterial adventitia which should be resected or might be injured in cases where radical surgery is attempted.

We report some technical principles utilized in various vascular localizations and mid-term survival observed in a group of 35 patients in whom a vascular reconstruction was performed during the surgical treatment of a malignant tumor. The following vessels were involved: carotid artery (n = 5), superior vena cava (n = 9), aortic arch (n = 1), subclavian artery (n = 1), right atrium +/- inferior vena cava (n = 6), abdominal aorta (n = 3) and finally iliac artery and/or vein (n = 10). The following surgical techniques were employed: extra-anatomic bypass (n = 3), in situ reconstruction (n = 23) using either prosthetic graft or saphenous vein interposition, patch angioplasty with autologous vein or xenopericardium and ligature of the involved artery or vein (n = 4). In 5 patients suffering from hypernephroma with a tumor thrombus, cardiopulmonary bypass was used to allow radical intracardiac excision.

There was no intraoperative mortality despite the fact that a majority of these vascular procedures was performed after incidental and unexpected finding during surgery. Two patients died before hospital discharge (one from pneumonia, the second one from sepsis). Mid-term survival was satisfactory with 45% of the patients still alive after a mean follow-up of 4.5 years--all tumor types confounded.

This series demonstrates that an aggressive approach might be justified in appropriate patients who otherwise might not be considered as operative candidates.