A REVIEW OF 103 CASES WITH ELECTIVE REPAIR FOR ABDOMINAL AORTIC-ANEURYSM - AN ANALYSIS OF THE RISK-FACTORS BASED ON POSTOPERATIVE COMPLICATIONS AND LONG-TERM FOLLOW-UP

From 1982 through 1992, 103 patients (mean age: 69 years) underwent an elective repair of an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) at our institution. One or more postoperative complications occurred in 30 patients (29%), with a mortality rate of 1.9%. Factors which were found to be significantly associated with postoperative complications based on an univariate analysis included male sex (P = 0.0082), operation time (P = 0.0006), the size of the aneurysm (P = 0.0045), the amount of blood loss during operation (P = 0.0037), poor lung function (P = 0.0155), and the platelet count (P = 0.0468). A simple linear regression analysis showed that there were significant correlations among the AAA size, the duration of operation and the amount of blood loss. The age at operation, however, did not influence morbidity or mortality. Complete survival information was obtained in 96 (95%) patients, while the influence of preoperative risk factors on late survival was also examined by the Kaplan-Meier method. The factors influencing long-term survival were determined to be renal dysfunction and age at the time of operation.