A shorter skin incision technique for the repair of infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysms.
OBJECTIVE
We evaluated the effectiveness of a shorter skin incision technique for the treatment of infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA). The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether or not the difference in the length of the skin incision contributed to an early recovery after the operation.


METHODS
Between October 2001 and December 2004, we performed 105 elective repairs for AAA. The patients were divided into three groups according to the length of the skin incision as follows: group A, less than 15 cm, group B, from 15 cm to less than 20 cm, and group C, 20 cm or more.


RESULTS
There was no significant difference in the intraoperative course among the three groups. The duration of paralytic ileus was shorter in group A than in group C (2.0 +/- 0.9 days versus 3.2 +/- 2.3 days; P = 0.0428). Although the periods before removal of nasogastric suction and before starting a solid diet were slightly shorter in group A than in groups B and C, there were no statistically significant differences.


CONCLUSIONS
We define minimally invasive vascular surgery as surgery performed with a small abdominal skin incision that does not expose the intestine to air while providing a good operative field that does not place any undue stress on the surgeon.
Hiromatsu
Shinichi
S
Department of Surgery, Kurume University School of Medicine, 67 Asahi-machi, Kurume, Fukuoka, 830-0011, Japan.
Egawa
Noriko
N
Hosokawa
Yukio
Y
Ishihara
Kenji
K
Yokokura
Hiroko
H
Tanaka
Atsuhisa
A
Aoyagi
Shigeaki
S
D000368:Aged; D017544:Aortic Aneurysm, Abdominal / Q000601:surgery*; D062109:Dermatologic Surgical Procedures; D017558:Elective Surgical Procedures; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007813:Laparotomy / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D019060:Minimally Invasive Surgical Procedures / Q000379:methods*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014656:Vascular Surgical Procedures / Q000379:methods*