Outcomes of Aortic Surgery for Abdominal Aortic Graft Infections

Abstract

Incidence of abdominal aortic surgery for AGI has progressively declined over the span of our study in association with decreased open and increased endovascular aortic aneurysm repairs. Aortic surgery for AGI is associated with very high morbidity and mortality rates along with prolonged lengths of stay and elevated hospital charges. The outcomes of operations for AGI are better in younger patients and higher volume hospitals.

Commentary: The benefits of going big: Cost savings and reduced mortality in a national study of proximal aortic repair

“…The National Inpatient Sample (NIS) serves as a valuable resource to identify trends for hospitalized patients within the United States with regard to access, cost, outcomes, and other factors; when weighted, this readily available federal data reflect more than 97% of US patients, and a wide variety of medical procedures are tracked using administrative codes from the International Classification of Diseases (most recently the International Classification of Diseases Clinical Modification, 9th Revision, and International Classification of Diseases Clinical Modification, 10th Revision/ Procedure Classification System). 1 As pertains to aortic surgery, contemporary analyses have largely focused on use and outcome trends for technique-driven and other studies of the descending thoracic, [2][3][4] thoracoabdominal, 5,6 and abdominal aorta 7,8 as well as studies on aortic dissection. [9][10][11] Although considerable effort has been made to better understand practice trends in repair of the distal aorta (ie, the descending thoracic, thoracoabdominal, and abdominal aorta), there are a lack of NIS-based studies that exclusively examine the proximal aorta, namely the aortic root, ascending aorta, and aortic arch.…”