Flow cytometric characterisation of normal versus psoriatic epidermis with improved cell separation methodology.

Item does not contain fulltext5 p

Mid-term survival and costs of treatment of patients with descending thoracic aortic aneurysms; endovascular vs. open repair: a case-control study

AbstractObjectivesTo evaluate the results of open surgery or endovascular stent graft repair of descending thoracic aortic aneurysm (TAA).Design, materials and methodsThis is a retrospective multicenter study of 95 patients undergoing TAA repair (42 stent grafts, 53 open repair). The median age was 67 years. Post-operative complications, mid-term survival and costs were assessed. The results were pooled with data in the literature.ResultsAfter a mean follow up of 26 months (open group) and 15 months (endovascular group) survival was similar for patients treated by either repair method. Post-operative pneumonia was more in the open group (p<0.02). The hospital costs of open treatment were 40% more than that of the endovascular procedure. Combining the present results with pooled data from the literature the peri-operative mortality and paraplegia rate was less in the endovascular group (p<0.05).ConclusionsThese retrospective data suggest that endografting of descending thoracic aneurysms can be performed with less peri-operative morbidity, at lower hospital costs, but with equal mid-term life expectancy, compared with open grafting

Saccular Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms Patient Characteristics, Clinical Presentation, Treatment, and Outcomes in the Netherlands

Objective: The aim of this was to analyze differences between saccularshaped abdominal aortic aneurysms (SaAAAs) and fusiform abdominal aortic aneurysms (FuAAAs) regarding patient characteristics, treatment, and outcome, to advise a threshold for intervention for SaAAAs.Background: Based on the assumption that SaAAAs are more prone to rupture, guidelines suggest early elective treatment. However, little is known about the natural history of SaAAAs and the threshold for intervention is not substantiated.Methods: Observational study including primary repairs of degenerative AAAs in the Netherlands between 2016 and 2018 in which the shape was registered, registered in the Dutch Surgical Aneurysm Audit (DSAA). Patients were stratified by urgency of surgery; elective versus acute (symptomatic/ruptured). Patient characteristics, treatment, and outcome were compared between SaAAAs and FuAAAs.Results: A total of 7659 primary AAA-patients were included, 6.1% (n = 471) SaAAAs and 93.9% (n = 7188) FuAAAs. There were 5945 elective patients (6.5% SaAAA) and 1714 acute (4.8% SaAAA). Acute SaAAApatients were more often female (28.9% vs 17.2%, P = 0.007) compared with acute FuAAA-patients. SaAAAs had smaller diameters than FuAAAs, in elective (53.0mm vs 61 mm, P = 0.000) and acute (68mm vs 75 mm, P = 0.002) patients, even after adjusting for sex. In addition, 25.2% of acute SaAAA-patients presented with diameters <55mm and 8.4% <45 mm, versus 8.1% and 0.6% of acute FuAAA-patients (P = 0.000). Postoperative outcomes did not significantly differ between shapes in both elective and acute patients.Conclusions: SaAAAs become acute at smaller diameters than FuAAAs in DSAA patients. This study therefore supports the current idea that SaAAAs should be electively treated at smaller diameters than FuAAAs. The exact diameter threshold for elective treatment of SaAAAs is difficult to determine, but a diameter of 45mm seems to be an acceptable threshold.Vascular Surger