[Minilaparotomy in surgical treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms]

The experience with resection of abdominal aortic aneurysms in 72 patients through minilaparotomy is analyzed. Surgery was performed in elderly patients (mean age was 73.5+/-5.7 years) with severe concomitant diseases. The size of the aneurysms was large and middle in 64%, patients with small aneurysms had occlusive and stenotic lesions of the iliac segment with chronic lower limb ischemia of stage II and III. An original surgical method is proposed with use of special vascular instruments and a"mini-assistant" set. Simultaneous operations along with aneurysms resection were performed in 10 (13.8%) patients. Good results were achieved in 97.3% cases. The application of a mini-approach is limited by intra- and suprarenal locations of the aneurysm.