title: Surgical treatment of axillary artery aneurysm.
abstract: Aneurysms of the axillary artery are rare and dangerous lesions that threaten the upper extremities with vascular and neurologic compromise. Most can be treated effectively with surgical excision and vascular grafting. We retrospectively assessed 4 axillary artery aneurysms upon which we operated from February 1998 through March 2004. Three patients were admitted to our clinic for symptomatic axillary masses. The remaining patient was transported to our clinic emergently due to massive hemorrhage of an enlarging axillary mass that occurred during biopsy of the mass at another hospital. In this patient, the ruptured axillary artery aneurysm was diagnosed by means of emergent upper-extremity selective angiography. All patients were treated surgically by means of aneurysmectomy and graft interpositioning--with polytetrafluoroethylene grafts in 2 patients and saphenous vein grafts in the other 2. Surgical treatment of axillary artery aneurysms is of importance in avoiding thromboembolism and ischemia, which in turn can lead to gangrene and amputation of the affected extremity. For this reason, operative management of such cases should not be delayed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Ataturk Education and Research Hospital, Yesilyurt, Izmir, Turkey. omer_tetik@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Omer
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Tetik
authors.forename: Levent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yilik
authors.forename: Yuksel
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Besir
authors.forename: Aynur
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Can
authors.forename: Cengiz
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ozbek
authors.forename: Ayhan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Akcay
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gurbuz
mesh_terms: D000783:Aneurysm / Q000601:surgery*; D017542:Aneurysm, Ruptured / Q000601:surgery*; D001132:Arm / Q000098:blood supply; D001366:Axillary Artery; D001807:Blood Vessel Prosthesis; D019917:Blood Vessel Prosthesis Implantation; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011138:Polytetrafluoroethylene; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012501:Saphenous Vein / Q000637:transplantation
chemical_list: D011138:Polytetrafluoroethylene