Risk factors for postoperative complications after open infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm repair in Koreans

Purpose: Open infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repair is performed without event in most cases. However, some patients suffer major morbidities such as renal failure, myocardial infarction, paraplegia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, or hepatic dysfunction. Predicting what kinds of patient populations are more prone to develop such complications may keep the clinicians more attentive to the patients, possibly leading to better prognoses. In this retrospective study, we searched the incidence of and risk factors for postoperative complications and their predictive equations in 162 patients who underwent open infrarenal AAA repair. Materials and Methods: Postoperative complications were observed within 30 days. Patient characteristics, types of aneurysm and surgery, and hemodynamic and metabolic variables during the periclamp period were analyzed in relation to postoperative complications using multiple logistic regression analysis. Results: Postoperative complications involved the cardiac (20%), pulmonary (14%), renal (13%), gastrointestinal (6%), hepatic (3.1%), and neurologic (2.5%) systems, and bleeding occurred in 1.2% of cases. The mortality rate was 5.6%. The risk factors were age [> 67 yrs, odds ratio (OR) 2.6], clamp duration (> 110 min, OR 4.7), volume of blood transfusion (> 1,280 mL, OR 4.4), emergency operation (OR 1.4), and vasopressor infusion during clamp (OR 1.4). The prediction model was: P(x) = exp(a)/[1 + exp(a)] a;-2.2 + 0.9 × age + 1.5 × clamp duration + 1.5 × transfusion + 0.3 × emergency + 0.4 × vasopressor infusion [insert 1 if risk factors exist, otherwise, insert 0 to each variable]. Conclusion: A significant number of complications occurred after infrarenal AAA repair. Therefore, creating a protocol to identify and monitor high risk patients would improve postoperative care.