Vaskulárna medicína 2/2011

Autologous femoral vein to replace infected aortic prosthetic grafts including those after AAA resection

An autologous deep vein of the lower extremity (superficial femoral vein) was used for aorto-ilio-femoral reconstruction in a group of 14 patients (11 men and 3 women; average age, 59.6 years; range, 49-75 years). Eleven had aortic prosthetic graft infection, including two patients after abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) resection; and three were at an increased risk of such infection, including one patient with mycotic AAA. During follow-up (average, 26.7 ± 10.9 months; range 5-43 months) none of the patients died of conditions related to the surgery or required revision surgery. Neither early nor late complications, such as recurrent infection, graft occlusion, limb amputation, aneurysmal dilatation of the vein graft or pulmonary embolism, were recorded. In one patient, transient benign oedema following deep vein harvest was satisfactorily controlled with a compression stocking. In agreement with relevant international data, the results presented here show that very good outcomes are achieved with the use of autologous femoral veins for management of infected aortic prosthetic grafts, including those after AAA resection.

Keywords: aortic prosthetic graft infection, superficial femoral vein, deep vein, autogenous reconstruction