Technique for iliac artery reconstruction in abdominal aortic aneurysm repair

The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the technique for iliac artery reconstruction in abdominal aortic aneurysm repair, when external and internal iliac arteries were required to reconstruct individually. Among 203 elective infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm repairs, 22 patients (10.8%) required individual reconstruction of bilateral or unilateral iliac arteries, including 56 external or internal iliac arteries. Mainly, three types of procedures were performed: (1) the external iliac artery was anastomosed to the end of the bifurcated graft limb in an end-to-end manner, and the internal iliac artery was attached to the side of the external iliac artery, (2) the external iliac artery was anastomosed to the end of the bifurcated graft limb in an end-to-end manner and the internal iliac artery was bypassed with the use of a straight prosthetic graft extending from the limb of the bifurcated graft, and (3) the internal iliac artery was anastomosed to the end of the bifurcated graft limb in an end-to-end fashion, and the external iliac artery was sewn to the side of the graft limb. In these three types of procedures, the third technique was the easiest and simplest anatomically.