Aortic stent-graft infection following septic complications of a kidney stone

A 73-year-old man was treated because of a renal pelvis blowout of the left kidney for which he received a nephrostomy catheter without antibiotic prophylaxis. Almost a year previously this patient had undergone endovascular repair of a symptomatic infrarenal abdominal aorta aneurysm. Four weeks after the diagnosis and treatment of the ruptured renal pelvis, a new computed tomography scan and ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration confirmed the diagnosis of infected aortic stent-graft. An extra-anatomic axillo-uniiliac bypass and graft excision was performed. Two weeks after discharge the patient returned to the hospital with an occlusion of his left renal artery and died of renal failure. This is the first time an infected aortic stent-graft after a renal pelvis blowout has been reported. Although infections of aortic stent-grafts occur rarely, one should be aware of the possibility in aortic stent-graft patients undergoing abdominal procedures without antibiotic prophylaxis.