Direct health costs and clinical outcomes of open surgery in patients with abdominal aortic aneurysm in Spain. The RECAPTA study.

OBJECTIVE: Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a chronic, progressive disease that often requires surgical repair. This study aimed to assess the healthcare costs and clinical outcomes of open AAA repair in Spain. METHOD: Observational, retrospective, multicenter study with a one-year follow-up. Healthcare resource use and costs related to the surgical procedure, hospital stay, and follow-up period were assessed. RESULTS: Ninety patients with asymptomatic AAA who underwent open repair were recruited between 2003 and 2009 at three Spanish hospitals. Four patients (4.44%) died in the first 30 postoperative days. Mean [standard deviation] procedure time was 292.83 [72.10] minutes and mean hospital length of stay was 11.44 days [5.42]. Thirty two patients (35.56%) presented in-hospital complications and three patients (3.45%) underwent re-intervention during follow-up. The mean overall cost per patient during the study period was €21,622.59, of which 42.40% (€9,168.19), 52.08% (€11,261.74), and 5.52% (€1,192.66) corresponded to the surgical procedure, the inpatient stay, and the study follow-up period, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Given the economic burden imposed by the treatment of patients admitted with AAA on the Spanish health system, additional efforts comparing the cost of open repair with endovascular treatments are needed to ensure greater efficiency.

Hemoptysis caused by a left subclavian pseudoaneurysm: endovascular solution for a challenging case.

This is one of the first reports of a left subclavian pseudoaneurysm in a patient presenting with massive hemoptysis. We present a challenging case of a patient who consulted for hemoptysis. Imaging revealed a left subclavian artery pseudoaneurysm that caused a pulmonary parenchymal lesion. Treatment with a self-expanding thoracic stent-graft and a subclavian occluder was successful.

Randomized comparison of 6-mm straight grafts versus 6- to 8-mm tapered grafts for brachial-axillary dialysis access.

OBJECTIVE: This report presents the results of a prospective randomized study that compared 2 grafts of different diameter: 6 mm, and 8 mm tapered to 6 mm at the arterial site, placed in the upper arm for hemodialysis in a selected population of patients younger than 71 years without diabetes. METHODS: Seventy consecutive patients younger than 71 years without diabetes who required an upper arm graft between January 1997 and January 2002 and without previous access in the same limb were randomly allocated to receive either a 6-mm graft or 6- to 8-mm graft. Graft flow was measured every 3 months with the Doppler dilution technique. When access flow was less than 600 mL/min, fistulography was performed, and any stenosis was surgically treated with venous outflow replacement. Thrombectomy and associated stenosis treatment in the same stage was performed in all cases immediately after detection of thrombosis. Complication rate, and primary, assisted primary, and secondary patency rates were compared between the two groups with the Student t test and life table analysis. RESULTS: Mean access flow was 975 mL/min for 6-mm grafts (range, 600-1500 mL/min; 95% confidence interval [CI], 889-1070), and for 6- to 8-mm grafts was 1397 mL/min (range, 1122-2700 mL/min; 95% CI, 1122-1672). This difference was significant (P <.01). Complication rate was 0.45 episodes per graft-year in 6-mm grafts, and 0.19 episodes per graft-year in 6- to 8-mm grafts (P <.01). At 1, 2, and 3 years, primary patency rates were 62%, 58%, and 44%, respectively, for 6-mm grafts, and 85%, 78%, and 73% for 6- to 8-mm grafts; log-rank comparison between curves was P =.0259. At 1, 2, and 3 years, secondary patency rates were 85%, 85%, and 85%, respectively, for 6-mm grafts, and 90%, 90%, and 90% for 6- to 8-mm grafts; log-rank comparison between curves was not significant, at P =.0603. At 1, 2, and 3 years, assisted primary patency rates were 84%, 79%, and 76%, respectively, for 6-mm grafts, and 90% for 6- to 8-mm grafts; log-rank comparison was P =.0414. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study show an advantage in terms of primary and assisted primary patency rates, and complication rate for upper arm grafts with diameter 6 mm to 8 mm over grafts with 6-mm diameter in a patient population younger than 70 years without diabetes. The finding of a similar secondary patency rate in both groups is probably due to the surveillance program with sequential measurement of access flow and prompt surgical treatment of stenosis. However, we needed twice the number of rescue procedures in 6-mm grafts to achieve a similar patency rate as with large-bore grafts. These study results must be carefully evaluated, taking into consideration the small number of patients and the selected patient population.

Pseudoaneurisma de la arteria femoral infectado por clostridium septicum. Un caso clínico y revisión de la literatura / Femoral artery pseudoaneurysm infected by Clostridium septicum. A case report and review of the literature

Desde diciembre de 1995 a diciembre de 1996 se han revisado todas las complicaciones mayores tras punciones femorales diagnóstico-terapéuticas. Se realizaron 5.100 punciones femorales, de las que 3.500 correspondieron a cateterismos cardiacos (68,6 por ciento); I.200 a intervenciones radiológicas vasculares diagnósticas e intervencionistas (23,5 por ciento) y las 400 restantes a intervenciones neuroradiológicas (7,9 por ciento). Necesitaron intervención quirúrgica 10 pacientes: 8 pseudoaneurismas (0,16 por ciento); una fístula arterio-venosa (0,02 por ciento) y una infección (0,02 por ciento).Presentamos el caso de un pseudoaneurisma micótico por Clostridium septicum tras las realización de un cateterismo cardíaco que, al principio, evoluciona sin complicaciones. A los 3 meses acude al Servicio de Urgencias de nuestro hospital, presentando una tumoración ulcerada y maloliente en región femoral derecha. Pese al tratamiento antibiótico y la intervención quirúrgica, la paciente fallece por un cuadro séptico generalizado, comprobándose infección arterial por Clostridium septicum.Se revisan los 10 casos publicados, en la literatura de infección arterial por Clostridium septicum con una tasa de mortalidad superior al 70 por ciento y se analizan las pautas de diagnóstico y tratamiento (AU)