Femoral artery pseudoaneurysms in intravenous drug users: a 12-year series.

AIM: Management of pseudoaneurysms in intravenous drug users poses many questions regarding need for revascularization and type of surgery. The aim of this study was to report on the frequency and management of femoral artery pseudoaneurysms in our department during the last twelve years. METHODS: Retrospective report on patients hospitalized in the Department of Vascular Surgery in Red Cross Hospital, Athens, Greece between January 1999 and May 2010 with femoral artery pseudoaneurysms due to intravenous drug abuse. RESULTS: Overall, 23 patients (18 men, 5 women, mean age 36 years) were identified. Of these, 20 patients underwent revascularization, while femoral artery ligation had to be performed in 3. Intraoperative evaluation of leg perfusion was decisive in choice of treatment. No patient presented with critical limb ischemia postoperatively. No amputations or complications were noted during the follow-up. CONCLUSION: Treatment of common femoral artery pseudoaneurysms in drug abusers should be tailored to individual requirements. Bypass surgery is not always required, due to the pre-existing collateral network in many cases.

Carotid endarterectomy in patients with foetal-type posterior circle of Willis: is there an indication for local anaesthesia?

Foetal-type posterior circle of Willis is a common anatomical variation with a variable degree of vessel asymmetry. In patients with this abnormality, carotid endarterectomy (CEA) may create cerebral hypo-perfusion intraoperatively, and this may be underestimated under general anaesthesia. There is currently no evidence that anatomical variations in the circle of Willis represent an independent risk factor for stroke. Moreover, there is a paucity of data on treating patients with such anatomical variations and co-existing ICA stenosis. We present a case of CEA under local anaesthesia (LA) in a 52-year-old female patient with symptomatic stenosis of the right ICA and coexistent foetal-type posterior circle of Willis. There were no post-operative complications and she was discharged free from symptoms. She was seen again 3 months later and was free from complications. This case higlights that LA should be strongly considered to enable better intra-operative neurological monitoring in the event of foetal-type posterior circle of Willis.

"Silent" thrombosis of an abdominal aortic aneurysm not producing acute limb ischemia.

Thrombosis of an abdominal aortic aneurysm is a rare devastating complication with an estimated mortality rate of 50%. Simultaneous acute pain, pallor and coldness of the lower limbs, mottling from the level of iliac crests or umbilicus, paraplegia and absence of femoral pulses are all manifestations of a sudden and acute interruption of blood flow through the aneurysmatic aorta. We report a case of an occlusion of an abdominal aortic aneurysm during hospitalization which was not manifested with symptoms of limb ischemia. In this case we feature the rare and unusually "silent" presentation of the event.

Persistent endoleak after endovascular exclusion of an aortocaval fistula, producing renal insufficiency.

This report presents a case of type II endoleak after endovascular exclusion of a primary aortocaval fistula, producing renal vein hypertension and renal insufficiency. A 74-year-old patient presented with acute renal insufficiency, hematuria, lower limb edema, and weight gain. The abdominal CT scan revealed an abdominal aortic aneurysm and an aortocaval fistula. An endograft was deployed but type II endoleak was present and persisted after surgical ligation of the inferior mesenteric artery and subsequent unsuccessful attempt of coil-embolization. The patients renal function continued to be impaired. Surgical ligation of aortocaval communication with preservation of the endograft was performed, resulting in restored renal function.

Giant abdominal aortic aneurysms: clinical and technical considerations.

The rupture risk of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) depends primarily on their diameter and increases substantially in large aneurysms. Only a few cases of giant AAAs, with a maximum diameter > 13 cm have been reported in the English literature. This case series report describes 3 cases of giant AAAs presented with rupture. All cases were managed with open surgical repair, since anatomic factors prevented us from choosing an endovascular approach. The huge size of the aneurysm, the short length of the neck and the dislodgement of abdominal organs, that may be densely adhered to its surface with fistula formation, make surgery of this entity very challenging. Open repair of giant AAAs is often the only available treatment, though not always with good results.

Cardiac troponin I in patients with acute upper and lower limb ischemia.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to investigate the presence, etiology and clinical significance of elevated troponin I in patients with acute upper or lower limb ischemia. The high sensitivity and specificity of cardiac troponin for the diagnosis of myocardial cell damage suggested a significant role for troponin in the patients investigated for this condition. The initial enthusiasm for the diagnostic potential of troponin was limited by the discovery that elevated cardiac troponin levels are also observed in conditions other than acute myocardial infarction, even conditions without obvious cardiac involvement. PATIENTS AND METHODS: 71 consecutive patients participated in this study. 31 (44%) of them were men and mean age was 75.4 +/- 10.3 years (range 44-92 years). 60 (85%) patients had acute lower limb ischemia and the remaining (11; 15%) had acute upper limb ischemia. Serial creatine kinase (CK), isoenzyme MB (CK-MB) and troponin I measurements were performed in all patients. RESULTS: 33 (46%) patients had elevated peak troponin I (> 0.2 ng/ml) levels, all from the lower limb ischemia group (33/60 vs. 0/11 from the acute upper limb ischemia group; p = 0.04). Patients with lower limb ischemia had higher peak troponin I values than patients with upper limb ischemia (0.97 +/- 2.3 [range 0.01-12.1] ng/ml vs. 0.04 +/- 0.04 [0.01-0.14] ng/ml respectively; p = 0.003), higher peak CK values (2504 +/- 7409 [range 42-45 940] U/ml vs. 340 +/- 775 [range 34-2403] U/ml, p = 0.002, respectively, in the two groups) and peak CK-MB values (59.4 +/- 84.5 [range 12-480] U/ml vs. 21.2 +/- 9.1 [range 12-39] U/ml, respectively, in the two groups; p = 0.04). Peak cardiac troponin I levels were correlated with peak CK and CK-MB values. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with lower limb ischemia often have elevated troponin I without a primary cardiac source; this was not observed in patients presenting with acute upper limb ischemia. It is very important for these critically ill patients to focus on the main problem of acute limb ischemia and to attempt to treat the patient rather than the troponin elevation per se. Cardiac troponin elevation should not prevent physicians from providing immediate treatment for limb ischaemia to these patients, espescially when signs, symptoms and electrocardiographic findings preclude acute cardiac involvement.

Anastomotic pseudoaneurysms: our experience with 49 cases.

We investigated the factors implicated in the pathogenesis of anastomotic aneurysm formation and the postoperative course of patients with such a complication. Forty-five patients with 49 anastomotic aneurysms were diagnosed and treated in two vascular surgery departments in Athens, Greece, during an 8-year period. Emergent complications occurred in 15 cases, rupture in 11, and thromboembolic episodes in another four. Preoperative diagnostic workup in the remaining elective cases (n = 34) included color duplex scan, computed tomographic scan, and angiography. All patients underwent operation, and cultures were obtained during the surgical procedures. Histological examination of the host artery wall adjacent to the aneurysm was also performed. Aortobifemoral bypass was the original operation performed in the majority of cases (71%), and the femoral anastomosis was the most frequent site involved (85.7%). Emergent procedures were associated with increased mortality (46.6%), whereas elective operation resulted in high patency rates and no mortality. In an attempt to isolate predisposing factors that contributed to aneurysm formation, we concluded that the etiology was multifactorial in approximately one-third of the cases and degenerative host artery disease was the main cause (40%). Arterial degeneration is the leading cause of anastomotic aneurysm formation, and emergency arterial reconstruction in cases of aneurysm complication is associated with a poor prognosis.

Single-day loading dose of oral amiodarone for the prevention of new-onset atrial fibrillation after coronary artery bypass surgery.

BACKGROUND: Various regimens have been proposed for the prevention of postoperative atrial fibrillation, including the use of intravenous and oral amiodarone. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a single-day loading dose of oral amiodarone in prophylaxis of atrial fibrillation during the 7 days after coronary artery bypass surgery. METHODS: We conducted a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study encompassing 315 consecutive patients who underwent coronary artery bypass surgery. They received either amiodarone (159 patients) or placebo (156 patients). Therapy consisted of a single oral loading dose of 1200 mg of amiodarone 1 day before surgery, followed by the maintenance dose of 200 mg daily during the next 7 days. Only episodes of atrial fibrillation lasting more than 1 hour or associated with hemodynamic compromise were taken into consideration. RESULTS: Overall, the incidence of atrial fibrillation was similar in patients who received amiodarone (31/159, 19.5%) and placebo (33/156, 21.2%) (P = .78). However, amiodarone reduced the incidence of atrial fibrillation in elderly patients (age > or = 60 years): it occurred in 20 of 75 (26.7%) patients on amiodarone and in 28 of 65 (43.1%) patients in the placebo group (P = .05). There were no differences between the study groups regarding the postoperative intrahospital morbidity and mortality and the duration of hospital stay. CONCLUSIONS: A single-day loading dose of oral amiodarone (1200 mg) does not prevent postoperative atrial fibrillation in a general population of patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery. However, it appears that this regimen reduces the occurrence of postoperative atrial fibrillation in elderly patients.