Primary aortoenteric fistula

ABSTRACT

One hundred and thirty-eight patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms were treated by aneurysmorrhaphy over an eleven-year period. Six patients, all male and aged 60 - 74 years, were found to have developed primary aorteonteric fistulae. Four patients presented with bleeding into the gastrointestinal tract in association with a tender abdominal swelling. In the other two cases, the aneurysm was discovered at emergency laparatomy for gastrointestinal haemorrhage. The presence of the fistula was confirmed at operation in five patients and at autopsy in one. Two patients died, one from a massive gastrointestinal haemorrhage to surgery, the other from sepsis complicated by adult respiratory distress syndrome and renal failure following operation