Anesthetic experience with endovascular aortic aneurysm repair.

BACKGROUND

We endeavored to characterize the anesthesia experience with endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) at a large academic medical center in the United States.

METHODS

A retrospective review of electronic medical records was conducted for all patients undergoing elective EVAR from 2002 to 2007 in a large academic medical center.

RESULTS

A total of 522 cases met inclusion criteria, with 4% of cases using general anesthesia (GA), 92% regional anesthesia (RA), and 4% local anesthesia (LA). There was no statistically significant difference between the groups for duration of surgery or in-hospital mortality. In-hospital length of stay was longer for GA than LA or RA. Four cases were converted to open repair. Two mortalities occurred during the perioperative period (0.4% of cases).

CONCLUSIONS

The vast majority of EVAR were successfully performed under RA, involved mild blood loss, involved infrequent need for conversion to GA, and resulted in brief in-hospital length of stay and low mortality rate.