[Color-coded duplex sonography in postoperative evaluation of aortic aneurysms]

One hundred patients with infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysms were treated by surgery. Fifteen deaths occurred postoperatively. Eleven patients died during the follow-up of a medium period of 13 months. Three patients with a ruptured aneurysm died intraoperatively before the graft was implanted. Three patients were lost to follow-up. Sixty-four patients were examined with colour-coded Duplex sonography after surgical repair. Colour-coded Duplex sonography was able to image the aortic prostheses with the adjacent major vessels. Fifty-eight patients showed a normal prosthesis, 3 dilatation proximal of the prosthesis, 1 dilatation distal of the prosthesis, 1 mild stenosis, 1 haematoma. Colour-coded Duplex sonography imaged the intraluminal space of the prosthesis more easily than ultrasound. Colour-coded Duplex sonography was able to differentiate between intraluminal and extraluminal lesions.