[Complications of aortoiliac surgery and their postoperative therapy]

Experience in early postoperative treatment of 249 patients who had been subjected to aortoiliacal vascular surgery is reported. The therapeutic principles are outlined and the complications are reviewed. For the prevention of infectious complications the patients are given antibiotic protection, are fed parenterally till passage starts and, to avoid threatening postoperative hypoxaemia in the case of more severe respiratory disorders, prophylactic respiratory therapy is applied, and small doses of heparin are administered to prevent thrombosis. Taking into consideration the high incidence of complications and the advanced age of the patients, it is important to keep these in the intensive ward during the early postoperative period.