Cerebrospinal fluid drainage and distal aortic perfusion: reducing neurologic complications in repair of thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm types I and II.
OBJECTIVE
This study was conducted to evaluate the role of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) drainage and distal aortic perfusion (DAP) in the prevention of postoperative neurologic complications for high-risk patients who had undergone type I and type II thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm (TAAA) repair.


METHODS
CSF drainage and DAP were used as an adjunct in the treatment of 94 patients with TAAA (31 type I, 63 type II) between September 1992 and December 1994; 67 were men and 27 were women. The median age was 64 years (range, 28 to 88 years). Aortic dissection occurred in 35 of 94 patients (37%). Thirty-six of 94 patients (38%) had previously undergone proximal aortic surgery. All patients underwent intraoperative DAP and perioperative CSF drainage. Median aortic cross-clamp time was 67 minutes (range, 20 to 131 minutes).


RESULTS
The 30-day survival rate was 90% (85 of 94 patients). Early neurologic complications occurred in 5 of 94 patients (5%), and late neurologic complications occurred in 3 of 94 patients (3%). We compared the neurologic complications of our current group of 94 patients with the data from 42 patients (control group) who also underwent repair of TAAA type I and type II with only simple cross-clamp and without CSF drainage or DAP. Both groups were treated by the senior author (HJS) at the same institution. Total neurologic complications for the current group occurred in 8 of 94 patients (9%) versus 8 of 42 patients (19%) for the control group (p=0.090). Neurologic complications for patients with type II TAAA occurred in 8 of 63 patients (13%) versus 17 of 42 patients (41%) (p=0.014). For all patients with aortic clamp times >or=45 minutes, neurologic complications occurred in 7 of 55 (13%) versus 7 of 18 (39%) (p=0.033).


CONCLUSIONS
The period of risk during aortic cross-clamp time is reduced with the adjuncts of CSF drainage and DAP, which significantly lower the incidence of neurologic complications after repair of TAAA types I and II.
Safi
H J
HJ
Baylor College of Medicine, the Methodist Hospital, Houston, TX, USA.
Hess
K R
KR
Randel
M
M
Iliopoulos
D C
DC
Baldwin
J C
JC
Mootha
R K
RK
Shenaq
S S
SS
Sheinbaum
R
R
Greene
T
T
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000784:Aortic Dissection / Q000601:surgery; D017544:Aortic Aneurysm, Abdominal / Q000145:classification / Q000601:surgery*; D017545:Aortic Aneurysm, Thoracic / Q000145:classification / Q000601:surgery*; D002315:Cardiopulmonary Bypass; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002555:Cerebrospinal Fluid / Q000502:physiology*; D004322:Drainage; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007430:Intraoperative Care; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009460:Neurologic Examination; D010264:Paraplegia / Q000517:prevention & control*; D010477:Perfusion; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000517:prevention & control*; D015996:Survival Rate