Characteristics and Risk Factors for Mortality of Vascular Graft Infections: a Cohort Study

Area of Science:

• Vascular surgery
• Infectious diseases
• Clinical outcomes

Background:

• Vascular graft infections (VGIs) are rare but serious complications.
• These infections are associated with significant patient morbidity and mortality.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze patient and infection characteristics.
• To evaluate surgical and medical management strategies.
• To identify predictors of infection-related mortality in VGI patients.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective study of 129 patients undergoing surgery for VGI (2020-2025).
• Data collected on patient demographics, comorbidities, infection details, management, and 1-year follow-up.
• Infection-related mortality defined as death within 1 year attributable to VGI.

Main Results:

• Most patients were male (82%) with a median age of 71; common comorbidities included smoking (82%), hypertension (64%), and diabetes (32%).
• Extracavitary VGIs (85%) often occurred early (<4 months). Polymicrobial infections (49%) were frequent, with Staphylococcus aureus predominant (16%).
• Overall 1-year mortality was 43%. Independent predictors of mortality included age >75 years and intensive care unit admission.

Conclusions:

• VGIs have a poor prognosis despite treatment.
• Advanced age and disease severity are key mortality predictors.
• Further multicenter studies are needed to clarify the impact of surgical strategies and microbiology.