Lower limb transcutaneous oxygen tension during aortic bypass grafting

Transcutaneous oxygen tension (tcPO2) was measured continuously at the foot of 10 patients during abdominal aortic bypass grafting. Median tcPO2 before surgery was 38.5 mmHg (range: 14-74 mmHg) increasing to 79.0 mmHg (range 44-104 mmHg) after insertion of the vascular prosthesis (p less than 0.01). Eight successful vascular reconstructions were correctly identified intraoperatively. One was correctly identified as failed and one was correctly identified as unchanged compared with the preoperative clinical status. Our results indicate that tcPO2-monitoring may contribute to quality assurance by intraoperative identification of failed or insufficient vascular reconstructions.