[Prevention of colonic ischemia during surgery of the aorta]

The authors report the results of 53 revascularizations of the Inferior Mesenteric Artery, performed during 315 aortic reconstructive procedures, in 19 (35.85%) cases out of a group of 102 aortic aneurysms and 34 (74.15%) cases in a group of 213 aorto-iliac obstructive lesions. The "Carrel patch" technique was always used for the aneurysms of the aorta abdominal cases, whilst this technique was always adopted for only 21 obstructive patients; in the remaining 13 a personal technique was used and is here described. The long term results show a good patency rate (63.7%) for the reimplanted artery, planted artery, but above all no case of colonic ischemia in this group to compare with the 3 cases occurred in the no reimplanted group.