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Updated: Aug 29, 2026
Surgical Technique for the Implantation of Tissue Engineered Vascular Grafts and Subsequent In Vivo Monitoring
Published on: April 3, 2015
Endovascular graft infection: preliminary results of an international enquiry
Paolo Fiorani1, Francesco Speziale, Annalisa Calisti
1Department of Vascular Surgery, Policlinico Umberto I, Rome, Italy.
Purpose:
To investigate the frequency of aortoiliac endovascular graft infections and seek the main factors influencing their development.
Methods:
To augment personal experience (1 case), a questionnaire was sent to 40 international centers of vascular and endovascular surgery. The literature was also reviewed to collect data on infections developing in endovascular grafts.
Results:
The survey (85% response rate) and literature review identified 62 cases of infected endovascular grafts (0.4% frequency of endograft infection). In 22 (35%) patients, the infection manifested initially with vague symptoms only, but 41 (65%) patients eventually presented with abdominal abscess, groin fistula, and septic embolization. Common bacteria, such as Staphylococcus aureus, were identified as the cause of most infections (54.5%). The majority (49, 79%) of the 62 patients were treated surgically; 11 (17.7%) patients received conservative therapy (no therapeutic data in 2 patients). Overall mortality was 27.4% (17/62), and operative mortality was 16.3% (8/49). Conservative treatment led to a mortality rate of 36.4% (4/11). The mean follow-up for all patients was 47.8 weeks. Possible factors influencing the development of an infection were secondary adjunctive procedures, immunosuppression, treatment of false aneurysms, and infected central lines.
Conclusions:
Infected endovascular grafts are an urgent problem that has been heretofore underestimated and will probably increase as follow-up lengthens. New techniques should be sought to expedite the diagnosis, and an international registry should be set up to provide validated data.
