Total laparoscopic repair of abdominal aortic aneurysm with short proximal necks

With the development of endovascular aneurysm repair, abdominal aortic aneurysms with short infrarenal necks (< or =10 mm, AAASN) are considered juxtarenal aneurysms. Minimally invasive treatment consists of hybrid procedures or fenestrated endografts. We present our experience with direct aortic repair for AAASN performed via a total laparoscopic approach. Data are expressed as median values with extremes. From February 2002 to December 2007, 32 patients had total laparoscopic AAASN repair. Length of the infrarenal aortic neck was 5 mm (0-10). Median age of the 29 men and three women was 70 years (range 50-84). Nine patients presented with preoperative grade 1 renal insufficiency (28.1%). The procedure was totally laparoscopic in 30 patients (93.7%). Aortic approaches included left retrorenal (n = 24) and transperitoneal left retrocolic (n = 8) exposures. Median operative and clamping times were 270 (range 215-410) and 83 (range 36-147) min, respectively. Aortic clamping was suprarenal in 14 cases (43.7%), with suprarenal clamping time of 24 min (range 9-37). Median blood loss was 850 mL (range 215-2,400). Thirty-day mortality was 3.1% (one patient died from myocardial infarction). Two patients presented with severe systemic complications (6.4%, postoperative coagulopathy with hemorrhagic syndrome, pneumopathy). Seventeen patients developed mild or moderate systemic nonlethal complications (53.1%): transient renal insufficiencies (n = 12), grade 1 ischemic colitis (n = 1), surrenal insufficiency (n = 1), myocardial ischemia (n = 1), and cardiac arythmia (n = 2). One patient was reoperated for an intestinal obstruction. Liquid diet was reintroduced after 1 day (range 1-13). Most patients were ambulatory by day 3 (range 2-17). Median lengths of stay were 48 hr (range 12-552) in the intensive care unit and 10 days (range 4-37) in the hospital. With a median follow-up of 27 months (range 1-50), 28 patients are alive, with complete recovery without graft anomalies. Three patients died, from pneumopathy (n = 1) and carcinoma (n = 2), respectively, at 29, 19, and 44 months' follow-up. Two patients presented stable juxta-renal aortic dilation <35 mm. Total laparoscopic juxtarenal AAA repair is feasible and worthwhile for patients with AAASN. Short- and midterm results match well with those of open surgery. Total laparoscopic repair in AAASN reduces the trauma of extensive surgical approaches. Based on these encouraging early results, we elected to perform laparoscopy whenever possible in good surgical risk patients with AASN.