Temporary Prosthetic Shunt to Permanent Aortic Prosthesis in a Patient with an Infected Thoracoabdominal Aneurysm to Shorten Ischemia Time

High operative mortality of infected thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms (ITAA) is partly attributable to ischemic injury during aortic clamping. We report a 62-year-old man with biliary cirrhosis, who developed a rapidly enlarging ITAA secondary to thoracolumbar osteomyelitis. Additional infectious foci were found in the pubic and ischial bones and in the left lung. Blood cultures gave growth of streptococcus pneumoniae. The aneurysm was repaired through a thoracoabdominal incision with a Dacron prosthesis. Prior to aneurysm repair, a prosthetic shunt was anastomosed end – to- side to the aortic prosthesis and to the descending aorta using a side-biting clamp. The shunt allowed perfusion of the lower body and of renal and visceral vessels after 45 minutes, the time needed to resect infected tissue and complete the distal anastomosis. The proximal anastomosis and orthopedic treatment of the spinal osteomyelitis could be performed, while the lower body and visceral organs were perfused. Postoperatively, the patient developed hypotension and increasing lactacidosis. Laparotomy revealed intestinal infarction, and gut resection was performed. Following a temporary improvement, he developed multiorgan failure and candida sepsis and died after 32 days. No atheroemboli were found in arteries of resected intestines. Portal hypertension most likely was present and it could be calculated that minimum intestinal perfusion pressure the night after the operation could have been in the range of 30-37 mm Hg, which probably was not enough to maintain aerobic metabolism. In the presence of aortic atheromas it may be advisable to divert blood to the shunt from an axillary artery

Temporary Prosthetic Shunt to Permanent Aortic Prosthesis in a Patient with an Infected Thoracoabdominal Aneurysm to Shorten Ischemia Time

High operative mortality of infected thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms (ITAA) is partly attributable to ischemic injury during aortic clamping. We report a 62-year-old man with biliary cirrhosis, who developed a rapidly enlarging ITAA secondary to thoracolumbar osteomyelitis. Additional infectious foci were found in the pubic and ischial bones and in the left lung. Blood cultures gave growth of streptococcus pneumoniae. The aneurysm was repaired through a thoracoabdominal incision with a Dacron prosthesis. Prior to aneurysm repair, a prosthetic shunt was anastomosed end – to- side to the aortic prosthesis and to the descending aorta using a side-biting clamp. The shunt allowed perfusion of the lower body and of renal and visceral vessels after 45 minutes, the time needed to resect infected tissue and complete the distal anastomosis. The proximal anastomosis and orthopedic treatment of the spinal osteomyelitis could be performed, while the lower body and visceral organs were perfused. Postoperatively, the patient developed hypotension and increasing lactacidosis. Laparotomy revealed intestinal infarction, and gut resection was performed. Following a temporary improvement, he developed multiorgan failure and candida sepsis and died after 32 days. No atheroemboli were found in arteries of resected intestines. Portal hypertension most likely was present and it could be calculated that minimum intestinal perfusion pressure the night after the operation could have been in the range of 30-37 mm Hg, which probably was not enough to maintain aerobic metabolism. In the presence of aortic atheromas it may be advisable to divert blood to the shunt from an axillary artery.publishedVersio

Temporary Vascular Occlusion by Rapid Reverse Phase Polymer: A Preliminary In Vitro Study of Retrograde Injection

During vascular surgical operations, there is a need for a simpler and more reliable method of temporary arterial occlusion than those currently employed, especially of heavily calcified arteries. A thermosensitive polymer, LeGoo (LG) (Pluromed, Woburn, MA), has been used successfully for temporary vascular occlusion. It has hitherto been injected by a cannula that has been introduced into the artery to be occluded, here henceforth called the “cannulation method.” Injection into arterial ostia without cannulation, using an injection device that arrests blood flow during the injection, here henceforth called “a retrograde method” may enable temporary hemostasis when ostial stenoses render it impossible to inject LG using the cannulation method. The objective of the present study was to study the feasibility of a retrograde method and to compare it with the cannulation method in an in vitro model, incorporating a narrow orifice to simulate ostial stenosis, using tap water at 37°C instead of blood. The retrograde method of LG injection, using a modified paediatric Foley catheter, turned out to be feasible to produce a durable LG plug more reliably, at higher water pressure and with less deep LG injection than with the cannulation method

Atheroembolization and potential air embolization during aortic declamping in open repair of a pararenal aortic aneurysm: A case report

Introduction: When ischemic events ascribable to microembolization occur during open repair of proximal abdominal aortic aneurysms, a likely origin of atheroembolism is not always found. Presentation of case: A 78-year old man with enlargement of the entire aorta underwent open repair for a pararenal abdominal aortic aneurysm using supraceliac aortic clamping for 20 min. Then the graft was clamped, the supraceliac clamp was removed, and the distal and right renal anastomoses were also completed. The patient was stable throughout the operation with only transient drop in blood pressure on reperfusion. Postoperatively the patient developed ischemia, attributable to microembolization, in legs, small intestine, gall bladder and kidneys. He underwent fasciotomy, small bowel and gall bladder resections. Intestinal absorptive function did not recover adequately and he died after 4 months. Microscopic examination of hundreds of intestinal, juxtaintestinal mesenteric, and gall bladder arteries showed a few ones containing cholesterol emboli. Discussion: It is unsure whether a few occluded small arteries out of several hundred could have caused the ischemic injury alone. There had been only moderate backbleeding from aortic branches above the proximal anastomosis while it was sutured. Inadvertently, remaining air in the graft, aorta, and aortic branches may have been whipped into the pulsating blood, resulting in air microbubbles, when the aortic clamp was removed. Conclusion: Although both atheromatous particles and air microbubbles are well-known causes of iatrogenic microembolization, the importance of air microembolization in open repair of pararenal aortic aneurysms is not known and need to be studied

Case Report Novel Visceral-Anastomosis-First Approach in Open Repair of a Ruptured Type 2 Thoracoabdominal Aortic Aneurysm: Causes behind a Mortal Outcome

Case reports to analyze causes and possible prevention of complications in a new setting are important. We present an open repair of a ruptured type 2 thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm in a 78-year-old man. Lower-body perfusion through a temporary extracorporeal axillobifemoral arterial prosthesis shunt was combined with the use of a branch to the permanent aortic prosthesis to enable rapid visceral revascularization using a visceral-anastomosis-first approach. The patient died due to transfusion-induced capillary leak syndrome and left colon necrosis; the latter was probably caused by a combination of back-bleeding from lumbar arteries causing a steal effect, an accidental shunt obstruction, and hemodynamic instability towards the end of the operation. The visceral-anastomosis-first approach did not contribute to the complications. This approach reduces the time when visceral organs are perfused only via collateral arteries to the time needed for suturing the visceral anastomoses. This may be important when collateral perfusion is marginal