title: Clinical significance of intraoperative cultures of aneurysm walls and contents in elective abdominal aortic aneurysmectomy.
abstract: To investigate the clinical significance of intraoperative cultures in elective abdominal aortic aneurysmectomy, we cultured the aneurysmal wall and contents in 90 patients undergoing vascular graft surgery. Prosthetic graft infection was documented in 1 out of 62 patients with negative cultures and in none of 28 patients with positive cultures (chi 2 = 0.4, p greater than 0.1). Bacterial growth was seen in neither of 2 inflammatory aneurysms, 3 of 14 atherosclerotic aneurysms and 2 of 5 aneurysms without specific features. A retrospective analysis of patients' charts aimed at finding possible risk factors failed to identify any correlation between results of cultures and length of hospitalization before surgery, time interval between angiography and surgery, route of angiography procedure or minutes of surgery before sample collection. We conclude that positive cultures may not imply clinical infection at the time of surgery and that prolonged post-operative organism-specific antibiotic therapy does not appear necessary to prevent graft contamination in patients undergoing elective abdominal aortic aneurysmectomy.
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Terapia Medica, Università La Sapienza, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Brandimarte
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Santini
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Venditti
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Baiocchi
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Serra
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gallo
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: d'Amati
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rizzo
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Speziale
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fiorani
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001012:Aorta, Abdominal / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000601:surgery; D001014:Aortic Aneurysm / Q000382:microbiology / Q000601:surgery*; D001807:Blood Vessel Prosthesis; D004866:Equipment Contamination; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007432:Intraoperative Period; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000517:prevention & control; D013210:Staphylococcus / Q000302:isolation & purification*
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents