Concomitant intra-abdominal disease in aortic surgery.

Concomitant intra-abdominal diseases can significantly influence the prognosis in patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms and have major impact on the planning and technical performance of aneurysm repair. Although the topic has been discussed for decades, questions as to which disease should have priority and the influence on the outcome of treatment are still controversial. 1'2 One explanation is that each centre will only be able to accumulate limited experience with this specific combination of diseases. One of the most frequent conditions seen in this context is carcinoma of the colon. Malignancies in the urogenital system are included in this survey, as they may represent special problems. Furthermore, cholelithiasis and cholecystitis are seen occasionally. Diverticulitis of the colon and other inflammatory bowel diseases may be observed in rare cases. The purpose of this article is to review a series of patients operated on for infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) and to analyse the occurrence of concomitant intra-abdominal diseases, including its influence on complication rate and final outcome.