Infectious arterial aneurysms: patterns and treatment.

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate patterns and evolution of treatment of infectious arterial aneurysms in a 15 year period.

Material and method: Eight patients bearing 8 arterial aneurysms: 4 aorto-iliac, 1 of the internal carotid, 1 of the posterior tibial, 1 of the cubital, 1 of the internal carotid artery. For the aorto-iliac aneurysms treatment consisted in resection extra-anatomic by-pass in 2, "in situ" prosthetic grafting in the other 2. Extra-abdominal aneurysms were treated by excision/"in situ" vein grafting in two cases and simple resection in other two cases.

Results: One post-operative death occurred, due to rupture of a ligated aortic stump. No death or major complication occurred after "in situ" treatment of aorto-iliac aneurysms and, overall, in extra-aortic aneurysms.

Conclusions: Staphylococcus and miceti have become the most frequently encountered causative agents. "In situ" grafting together with aggressive antibiotic therapy became the preferred method in the recent years and yielded good results.