Surgical management of infected abdominal aortic grafts: review of a 25-year experience.
Eighty-four patients with infected abdominal aortic grafts managed from 1961 through February 1985 were reviewed. Thirty-three patients had associated aortoenteric fistula formation. Twenty-eight infections (33%) and 13 aortoenteric fistulas (39%) originated at The Cleveland Clinic, yielding an incidence of aortic graft infection of 0.77% (28 of 3652 grafts) and aortoenteric fistula formation of 0.36% (13 of 3652 grafts) at this center. Staphylococcus organisms alone or in combination with other organisms were isolated from 34% of the series. Management consisted of graft removal and extra-anatomic bypass in 54 patients (64%), graft removal alone in 14 (17%) patients, partial graft removal and extra-anatomic bypass in seven (8%) patients, and miscellaneous operations in nine (11%) patients. Twenty-three patients (27%) required major amputations, nine of which were bilateral. Life-table analysis yielded 30-day and 1-year survival rates of 72% and 42%, respectively. Thirty-day survival of the aortoenteric fistula subset (49%) was less than that (86%) of the nonaortoenteric fistula subset (p = 0.003). One-year survival of patients treated since 1980 (54%) was superior to that of patients treated before 1980 (31%, p = 0.035). No difference in operative or 1-year survival was demonstrated between the group treated with extra-anatomic bypass and subsequent graft removal and another in which both procedures were performed simultaneously, although the staged group experienced substantially fewer (p = 0.04) amputations (7%) than the combined group (41%).
O'Hara
P J
PJ
Hertzer
N R
NR
Beven
E G
EG
Krajewski
L P
LP
D000206:Actuarial Analysis; D000671:Amputation, Surgical; D001012:Aorta, Abdominal / Q000601:surgery*; D001014:Aortic Aneurysm / Q000601:surgery; D001018:Aortic Diseases / Q000601:surgery; D001157:Arterial Occlusive Diseases / Q000601:surgery; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000150:complications / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D001807:Blood Vessel Prosthesis / Q000009:adverse effects*; D002177:Candidiasis / Q000150:complications / Q000601:surgery; D005112:Extracorporeal Circulation; D005260:Female; D005402:Fistula / Q000150:complications; D006801:Humans; D007412:Intestinal Fistula / Q000150:complications; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012008:Recurrence; D012086:Reoperation; D012189:Retrospective Studies