Anesthesia for Open Abdominal Aortic Surgery

Anesthesia for Open Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair

Abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) are the 13th leading cause of death in the United States 1 and approximately 40,000 patients undergo elective AAA repair each year.2 With the population aging, this number is expected to increase. Although the use of endovascular AAA repair is becoming more common, open repair, first reported by Dubost et al. in 1951 remains the gold standard.2 This chapter will review the etiology, risk factors, diagnosis, pathophysiology, operative technique, perioperative management, and postoperative complications of patients undergoing open AAA repair.

Anaesthetic management of a pregnant patient with Takayasu's disease undergoing abdominal aortic aneurysm repair

We report the successful anaesthetic management of repair of an abdominal aortic aneurysm in a patient with Takayasu's disease at 14 weeks' gestation. Anaesthesia was managed with combined epidural and general anaesthesia. During the intraoperative period haemodynamic parameters were well maintained. There were no episodes of haemodynamic fluctuations, oxygen desaturation or metabolic acidosis. Aortic cross-clamp time was 105 min, blood loss around 1200 mL, and central venous pressure maintained between 8 and 10 cm H2O. There were no sudden changes in cardiac parameters, base deficit or urine output before or after cross clamping. The patient later delivered a full term, normal fetus.