[Endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) : Complication management]

A variety of complications may be experienced during or after endovascular repair (EVAR) of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA). Acute procedure-related complications include injury to the access vessels, improper endograft placement, ischaemic and systemic complications as well as the postimplantation syndrome. Femoral pseudoaneurysms, endograft migration, kinking or occlusion, endoleaks and endograft infection are complications that have been observed at follow-up. Meticulous patient selection and preprocedural work-up can reduce the incidence of these complications. The majority of the complications, acute as well those at follow-up, can be dealt with endoluminally. It is of essence, however, that a wide variety of catheters, guidewires, stents, stent-grafts and embolics are readily available in the repertoire of the interventionalist. In a small number of patients with endograft occlusion or infection or with bleeding complications/pseudoaneurysms of the access vessels, open surgical intervention may become necessary. To obtain optimal results, close interdisciplinary co-operation, especially between the interventionist, the vascular surgeon and the anaesthetist is mandatory.