Survival following complete detachment of an end-to-end aortic anastomosis

A 78-year-old man had complete dehiscence of the suture line of the aorta to a prosthesis, 8 years after standard repair of an abdominal aortic aneurysm. For 6 months, until the aortic was reconstructed, the patient had no hemorrhage or limb ischemia because a conduit was maintained by the original aneurysm wall which had been wrapped around the prosthesis. The authors believe this is the first report of survival following such dehiscence. They advocate the use of non-absorbable sutures when anastomosing the graft to the aorta and repair rather than resection of abdominal aortic aneurysms.