Five patients have been operated on of thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms. The mean age was 53 years (range 31-71) and three were women. All the patients were symptomatic, three of them had arteriosclerotic aneurysms, and the other two had dissecting aneurysms. Three patients had been operated on previously. The exposure of aneurysm was made through a thoracoabdominal incision, in four patients clamps were placed above and below the aneurysm and it was incised longitudinally. Bypass between left atrium and left femoral artery with hypothermia and circulatory arrest was used in the other patients, since the proximal thoracic aortic clamping was impossible. A woven Dacron graft of adequate size was used to substitute the aorta, intercostals and visceral arteries were reimplanted. Paraplegia occurred in one patient. There was no intraoperative death. Two patients died in the immediate postoperative period, one of them on the 3rd day, by neurologic coma caused by cardiac arrest during the operation, and the other patient on the 12th postoperative day, suddenlly. Three patients were followed up. Two patients are doing well, 13 and 72 months after operation, and the other one has the limitation of the paraplegia.
aneurysms, thoracoabdominal