A clampless and sutureless aortic anastomosis technique using an endograft connector for aortoiliac occlusive disease in which the aorta cannot be clamped or sewn due to calcification or scarring

Bypass surgery in aortoiliac or aortofemoral occlusive disease can be technically demanding and hazardous due to huge calcificationsand/or patient co-morbidities. We report about mid-term results of a telescoping sutureless aortic anastomosis technique usingendografts as connectors to address such challenging situations. This is a single-center experience (2004–2011) in seven patients (63 ± 6years) requiring aortoiliac (three) or aortofemoral (four) bypass surgery. In six cases, an aortic stent graft was telescoped into theinfrarenal aorta and partly deployed within the aorta and partly outside the aorta. In the first case, a bifurcated stent graft was deployedand the iliac legs were prolonged extra-anatomically with surgical grafts to reach the femoral bifurcation. In the following five cases, atapered tubular stent graft was deployed through the aortic wall, landing inside a bifurcated surgical graft that was extra-anatomicallyconnected to the iliac or femoral arteries. In the last case, which presented a hostile abdomen and high-risk for extensive surgery, asimilar technique was used, but on the iliac artery level. In that case, an iliac stent graft re-loaded ‘upside down’ was deployed throughthe left common iliac wall, landing distally inside a hand-made 10 × 10mm bifurcated surgical graft that was extra-anatomicallyconnected to the left external iliac artery and to the right femoral artery. The distal anastomoses on the seven cases were performedeither with running sutures (ten) or with VORTEC (four). Telescoping aortic and/or iliac anastomosis was successful in all patients.There was no perioperative mortality. One patient developed postoperative hyperperfusion of the left leg and necessitated fasciotomy.During a mean follow-up of 1.8 ± 2 years (minimum: 270 days, maximum: 7.1 years), all of the grafts remained patent and there wasneither stent-graft migration nor stenosis on the level of the aortic or iliofemoral connection. One patient showed disease progressionand required percutaneous transluminal angioplasty on the external iliac artery during follow-up. The uneventful perioperative course inthese seven patients, with a follow-up of up to six years, underscores that this new technique can be considered in patients withaortoiliac or aortofemoral occlusive disease and in whom clamping and/or anastomosis is expected to be cumbersome or impossible.