Surgical Treatments for Takayasu's Arteritis

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: Takayasu's arteritis (TA) is a chronic inflammatory, stenotic or aneurysmal disease of an unknown etiology. TA occurs worldwide, but it disproportionately affects young females of Asian descent. TA is known to affect a variety of vessels, but the subclavian artery, axillary artery, carotid arteries and infraabdominal aorta are most frequently affected. In this article, we evaluated surgical treatment as a modality for the management for TA. METHOD: We retrospectively reviewed 20 patients with TA and who were operated on from January 1994 to December 2007. RESULT: The ages of patients were ranged from 12 to 56 years. The ratio of males to females was 1 to 19. The main affected vessels were the subclavian artery (n=10), the common carotid artery (n=10), the abdominal aorta (n=4) and the renal artery (n=4). 20 patients with TA were operated on. 17 of them underwent arterioarterial bypass, and 5 patients received angioplasty. There were 8 cases of reoperation due to the effect on other arteries, or due the stenosis or occlusion of the previous bypass graft. Angioplasty and stenting can be used in the treatment of shorter stenoses such as those encountered in the renal arteries. CONCLUSION: Symptomatic patients who have Takayasu's arteritis can be operated on. Our surgical experiences have showed low mortality and the surgical procedures relieved the symptoms. Surgical therapy for Takayasu's arteritis was safe and it showed good results.