Pecoraro Felice, Sabatino Ermanno R, Dinoto Ettore, La Rosa Giuliana, Corte Giuseppe, Bajardi Guido
Vascular Surgery Unit, University of Palermo, AOUP "P. Giaccone" Via Liborio Giuffrè 5, Palermo, Italy.
Cardiovasc Intervent Radiol. 2015 Oct;38(5):1299-302. doi: 10.1007/s00270-014-0970-6. Epub 2014 Aug 26.
A 78-year-old man presented with a 7-cm aneurysm in the left superficial femoral artery, which was considered unfit and anatomically unsuitable for conventional open surgery for multiple comorbidities. The patient was treated with stent-graft [Viabhan stent-graft (WL Gore and Associates, Flagstaff, AZ)]. Two years from stent-graft implantation, the patient presented a purulent secretion and a spontaneous external expulsion through a fistulous channel. No claudication symptoms or hemorrhagic signs were present. The pus and device cultures were positive for Staphylococcus aureus sensitive to piperacillin/tazobactam. Patient management consisted of fistula drainage, systemic antibiotic therapy, and daily wound dressing. At 1-month follow-up, the wound was closed. To our knowledge, this is the first case of this type of stent-graft complication presenting with external expulsion.