Endovascular repair for abdominal aortic aneurysms: initial experience of an endograft programme

To evaluate early clinical results of elective endovascular repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms during the initial phase of an aortic endograft programme and to compare them with conventional open surgery.

Between July 1999 and September 2001, all patients with infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysms undergoing elective repair were studied. The results of endovascular repair were compared with those of conventional repair.

Twenty-seven endovascular repairs (24 men and three women; mean age, 74 yr) and 25 conventional repairs (19 men and six women; mean age, 73 yr) for infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysms were evaluated. The aneurysm diameters in the two groups were similar (mean, 6.1 cm in the endovascular repair group and 6.6 cm in the conventional repair group). The comorbidities of the two groups were also comparable. The duration of operation was longer in the endograft group (249 +/- 86 min vs. 206 +/- 56 min), while the blood loss was significantly less (600 +/- 486 mL vs. 1074 +/- 1220 mL). The length of stay in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and the overall duration of hospitalization was also significantly less in the endograft group (1 +/- 1 d vs. 3 +/- 2 d in ICU; 9 +/- 5 d vs. 13 +/- 6 d of hospitalization). There was one hospital death in each group (4%), and the complications were similar between the two groups. During a mean follow-up period of 11.6 +/- 7.5 months, there was no rupture or open conversion in the endograft group.

In the initial phase of the aortic endograft programme, the mortality and morbidity were acceptable and comparable to that of open surgery.