[Morphology of abdominal aortic aneurysms with reference to endovascular blood vessel prosthesis]

The purpose of this report was to describe the frequency and morphology of infrarenal aortic aneurysms suitable for endovascular tube graft repair. Preoperative abdominal CT scans of 89 patients undergoing open tube graft repair were analyzed retrospectively by measurements of lengths and diameters of the aneurysms. The cases were divided into 3 separate groups: most suitable aneurysms with neck and cuff in 10% (9/89), aneurysms (59%, 52/89) with either a neck (92%) or a cuff (8%), and finally aneurysms without a neck or a cuff (31%, 28/89). The anatomically suitable aneurysms have a neck of 31 +/- 19 mm in length and 23 +/- 4 mm in diameter, a cuff of 17 +/- 6 mm in length and 25 +/- 6 mm in diameter. The aneurysms have a nearly saccular nature with a "saccular index" of 0.81 +/- 0.17, p = 0.009. It appears that 10% of aneurysms restricted to the infrarenal aortic segment fulfill all criterias for endovascular straight tube graft repair.