Anesthesia for endovascular surgery of the abdominal aorta.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Endovascular surgery for aneurism of the aorta is less invasive than the conventional procedure besides other advantages such as the absence of abdominal incision, absence of ligature of the aorta, and reduced postoperative recovery time. Since it is a relatively new procedure and to presenting a series of changes that should be known by the anesthesiologist, the objective of this report was to review the most relevant aspects of endovascular surgery, allowing more adequate perioperative anesthetic management. CONTENTS A brief description of the technique of endovascular aneurism repair, possible vantages and disadvantages of its use, as well as potential complications are discussed. CONCLUSIONS Knowledge of the changes secondary to the endovascular procedure allows a more adequate anesthetic conduct and improves the postoperative results in those patients.