Korean J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg.  2020 Dec;53(6):353-360. 10.5090/kjtcs.20.068.

Clinical Outcomes of Atypical Inflammatory Variants of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm

• Cho J
• Bang JH
• Jeong SS
• Yi J
• Yoon SS
• Cho K

• KMID: 2509406
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.5090/kjtcs.20.068

Abstract

Background
Most abdominal aortic aneurysms are degenerative atherosclerotic aneurysms. Inflammatory or infected abdominal aortic aneurysms, which show a slightly different clinical course, are rarely encountered in clinical settings. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the clinical course of these variants of abdominal aortic aneurysms.
Methods
This retrospective study included 32 patients with atypical inflammatory or infected abdominal aortic aneurysms who underwent emergent graft replacement between November 1997 and December 2017. Patients were followed up at the outpatient clinic for a mean period of 4.9±6.9 years. We analyzed the patients’ clinical course and compared it with that of patients with atherosclerotic abdominal aortic aneurysms.
Results
There was 1 surgical mortality (3.0%) in a case complicated by aneurysmal free rupture. In 2 cases of infected abdominal aortic aneurysms, anastomotic complications developed immediately postoperatively. During the follow-up period, 10 patients (30%) developed graft complications, and 9 of them underwent reoperations; of these, 2 patients (22.2%) died of postoperative complications after the second operation, whereas 2 patients survived despite graft occlusion.
Conclusion
Patients with inflammatory abdominal aneurysms frequently develop postoperative graft complications requiring secondary surgical treatment, so they require close mandatory postoperative follow-up.

Keyword

Aorta; Surgery; Prosthesis; Infection