[Embolisms of the abdominal aortic bifurcation]

The authors evaluate in the submitted paper the results of surgical treatment of embolization into the bifurcation of the abdominal artery at the Second Surgical Clinic in Brno during 1990-1996. A total of 5 patients was involved whereby in all a cardiac cause of the embolization was obvious. The authors deal also with the time which has elapsed between the development of complaints and surgery, the type of anaesthesia, average length of operation. The operation is implemented concurrently by two teams as antero- and retrograde simultaneous bi-transfemoral embolectomy. The authors emphasize the importance of the metabolic condition of the patient as well as cardiac and renal functions before, during and after surgery. They consider the application of peroperative haemodialysis essential. During the postoperative period it is important to find the objective cause of the cardiac deficiency and treat it. Their results--a 40% mortality are comparable with those of other specialized departments. By comparison with a similar group treated at the same department twenty years previously the authors find a decline in the incidence of this disease and explain this phenomenon by an increased number of cardiosurgical operations in this area.