Clinical profile of abdominal aortic aneurysms undergoing open surgical repair: A single-center experience

Introduction: An abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is defined as an aortic diameter at 1.5 times the normal diameter at the level of the renal arteries, which is approximately 2 cm. Existing data of clinical profile of AAA are mainly based on screening studies in the Western population. Materials and Methods: This is a retrospective observational study which included 165 patients who underwent conventional open repair for elective AAAs in a single center from January 2008 to August 2016. Results: The mean age of the patient cohort was 64.9 years with majority (92.7%) of them being a male cohort (male: female, 12.75:1). The mean size of the aneurysm was 6.8 cm. Ninety-six percent of the patients were hypertensive, 86% were smokers, 4.2% of patients had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and 16% of patients had preoperative renal dysfunction. Fifty-four percent of the patients had significant coronary artery disease (CAD), of which 19% underwent coronary intervention. Eighty-two percent of patients had infrarenal and 18% had juxtarenal AAA. Thirty-three percent of the patients who underwent open repair had concomitant common iliac artery aneurysm/ectasia. Conclusion: Clinical profile of AAA in this study shows a significantly high preponderance for males, hypertensive patients, and smokers, which have already been established as significant risk factors. Moreover, majority of the patients had significant CAD detected by routine preoperative cardiac evaluation which shows the significant coexistence between AAA and CAD in our population. Apart from coronary angiogram, evaluating patients with dobutamine stress echocardiography for inducible ischemia will act as a guide to detecting patients who are likely to benefit from revascularization and who are at increased risk of periprocedural cardiac events.