Genuine splenic artery aneurysm rupture treated by N-butyl cyanoacrylate and metallic coils under resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta

Endovascular and Open Surgical Treatment of Ruptured Splenic Artery Aneurysms: A Case Report and a Systematic Literature Review

BACKGROUND

Ruptured splenic artery aneurysms (r-SAA), although rare, are burdened by high morbidity and mortality, even despite emergent surgical repair. It is suggested that endovascular treatment can achieve reduction in peri-operative death and complication rates, as in other vascular diseases, but evidence of such benefits is still lacking in this particular setting. We report a case of an r-SAA treated by trans-arterial embolization and then converted to open surgery for persistent bleeding, and we provide a systematic review of current results of open and endovascular repair of r-SAAs.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A 50-year-old male presenting in shock for a giant r-SAA underwent emergent coil embolization and recovered hemodynamic stability. On the following day, he underwent laparotomy for evacuation of the huge intraperitoneal hematoma, but residual bleeding was noted from the splenic artery, which was ligated after coil removal, and a splenectomy was performed. A systematic literature review of the reported mortality and complications of r-SAA undergoing open (OSR) or endovascular (EVT) treatment was performed using the main search databases. All primary examples of research published since 1990 were included regardless of sample size. The main outcome measures were mortality and reinterventions. Secondary outcomes were post-operative complications.

RESULTS

We selected 129 studies reporting on 350 patients-185 treated with OSR and 165 with EVT. Hemodynamically unstable patients and ruptures during pregnancy were more frequently treated with open repair. Overall, there were 37 deaths (mortality: 10.6%)-24 in the OSR group and 13 in the EVTr group (mortality: 12.9% and 7.8% respectively, p-value: 0.84). There were 37 reinterventions after failed or complicated endovascular repair -6 treated with endovascular re-embolization and 31 with laparotomy and splenectomy (22.4%); there were 3 (1.6%) reinterventions after open repair. Overall complication rates were 7.3% in the EVT group (n: 12) and 4.2% in the OSR group (n: 7), and did not require reintervention. No significant differences in overall complications or in any specific complication rate were observed between the two groups.

CONCLUSIONS

Current results of r-SAA treatment show equipoise terms of morbidity and mortality between open and endovascular repair; however, in case of hemodynamic instability and rupture during pregnancy, open surgery might still be safer. Moreover, endovascular repair is still burdened by a significantly higher rate of reinterventions, mostly with conversions to open surgery.

Resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta may contribute to improved survival

BACKGROUND

Resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta (REBOA) is an increasingly used trauma resuscitation procedure, however, there are no reports of whether or not the survival of patients treated with REBOA increases over time.

METHODS

This retrospective cohort study from a nationwide trauma registry in Japan was conducted between 2004 and 2015. Patients treated with REBOA were divided into three calendar year periods: early-period (2004-2007), mid-period (2008-2011), and late-period (2012-2015). The primary outcome of in-hospital survival was compared between the periods (early-period: reference) using mixed effects logistic regression analysis after adjustment for characteristics, trauma severity, and therapeutic choices.

RESULTS

Of 236,698 trauma patients, 633 patients treated with REBOA were analyzed. Distribution of the patients across periods was as follows: early-period (91), mid-period (276), and late-period (266). In-hospital survival was 39, 49, and 60% in the early-period, mid-period, and late-period, respectively. In regression modeling, the late-period (OR = 2.976, 95% CI = 1.615-5.482) was associated with improved in-hospital survival compared to the early-period, however, the mid-period (OR = 1.614, 95% CI = 0.898-2.904) was not associated with improved survival.

CONCLUSIONS

Survival of patients treated with REBOA during the late-period improved compared with survival during the early-period, after adjustment for characteristics, trauma severity, and therapeutic choices. REBOA may be one of the important factors related to progression of modern trauma treatment.