Early results of endovascular treatment of visceral artery aneurysms and pseudoaneurysms

BACKGROUND: Visceral artery aneurysms (VAA) and pseudoaneurysms (PVA) represent a rare entity and the etiology often remains unknown. VAAs must be treated urgently if symptomatic and in elective setting, if asymptomatic, depending on size and location, but pseudoaneurysms must always be treated regardless of size and symptoms, according to recent ESVS and SVS guidelines. Diagnosis is based on ultrasonography and CT-scan imaging. Different surgical and endovascular techniques of treatment are currently available and the choice depends on the location of the lesion and on the anatomy of the patient, as well as the surgical risk.METHODS: We report early results of endovascular treatment about seven cases of VAA (N.=6) and PVA (N.=1) recently treated in our Unit. There were two females and five males, mean age 56.7 years. There were two splenic artery (SA) aneurysms, one SMA aneurysm, three renal artery (RA) aneurysms and one symptomatic pseudoaneurysm of the GDA.RESULTS: Patients were all treated with endovascular procedures with good final results in all cases. Just the patient affected by PVA was submitted to urgent endovascular treatment.CONCLUSIONS: PVAs represent an emergency. Symptomatic VAAs must be treated in urgency; asymptomatic VAAs must be treated according to size and location. Respect to open traditional repair, endovascular procedures offer good results with a lower in hospital stay and a lower morbidity rate. However, a strict and accurate follow-up is required to early identify possible complications.