[Spinal cord ischemia following subrenal aortic clamping]

The paraplegia caused by an aortic clamping just below the Renal artery is a rare but very complication in aortic surgery. Such a complication is even rarer if we consider the few cases reported in literature following a reconstructive surgery for occlusive chronic diseases of aortiliac axes. The authors have studied the case of a patient bearing the syndrome of Leriche; this one had an aortic clamping below the kidney and soon after developed an acute ischaemic syndrome below the spinal medulla with flaccid paraparesis, anal and vesical sphincteric diseases and persistence of deep tactile sensibility. After a reconstruction of vascular anatomy of the medulla they emphasize the importance, in such a disease, of the "arteria radicularis magna" of Adamkievicz and its place of origin. After they discuss the severe physioopathologic moments that are connected: with the direct ischaemia following aortic clamping in the cases where the arteria radicularis magna rises at a level lower than the clamping itself; with the embolism or thrombosis caused by surgical manipulation peroperatively (it might be the cause of paraplegia more frequent in aneurysmectomia surgery); with the severe hypotension per- and post operatively for the existence of arteriosclerotic disease of the lumbar arteries. Finally they analyses preoperatively diagnostic possibilities and per operatively methods used in preventing this sort of complication.