[Aortoiliac surgery in chronic hemodialysed patients]

Thirty eight patients on chronic hemodialysis were operated on for treatment of complicated aortoiliac atherosclerosis: 31 had aneurysms and 7 had stenotic or obstructive lesions. The 35 male and three female patients ranged in age from 39 to 78 years (mean: 55.3). The duration of hemodialysis treatment before the operation ranged from one month to 22 years but 80% of the patients were operated on during the first five years following the beginning of maintenance hemodialysis. The surgical repairs consisted of long aorta to femoral artery prosthesis in obstructive lesions and of short prostheses in cases of aneurysms so as not to make more difficult subsequent renal transplantation. All patients were operated on from 6 to 18 hours after a dialysis. Hemodialysis was resumed on the day of surgery in few patients or later according to the level of kalemia. Postoperative mortality rate was 10.5% and morbidity 13.5%. Only seven patients underwent secondary renal transplantation. The long-term survival rate was 43% at five years and 11% at ten years. Late deaths were due to coronary artery disease or to worsening of arterial lesions in the lower limbs.