Surgery of the Abdominal Aorta and Branches

Abstract

Diseases of the aorta and its branches may be commonly thought of as either occlusive or aneurysmal. Within the aorta itself, the most commonly affected area is the abdominal aorta, and, more specifically, the disease is mostly confined to the level of aorta below the renal arteries, or the so-called infrarenal segment. Whereas arteriosclerosis obliterans clearly is the etiologic agent in nearly all cases of occlusive disease, the pathogenesis of atherosclerotic aortic aneurysms is less clear, despite their name. Indeed, emerging evidence has promoted the participation of other factors in addition to atherosclerosis, such as excessive collagenase and elastase activity, genetic susceptibility, and hemodynamic factors (1).