Aim of the study. A comparison of the results of treatment of patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) in the planned procedure by means of operation method and treated by use of Y-grafts; an evaluation of the quality of life by the use of the Short Form 36-Item Health Survey and a specific survey conducted especially for this work; a specification of the results for both methods and a comparison of them.
Material and methods. From January 1998 to December 2001, 384 patients suffering from AAA were treated. 39 of them were operated in the acute procedure, 301 in the planned one whereas 44 patients were treated by means of endovascular technique using Y-grafts. The patients were asked to fill in questionnaires before the surgical intervention and 30 days after it, during the control visit. The questions from the survey concerned: patients’ opinion of their actual health status, aches, troubles with moving, the ability to perform everyday activities, sleeping problems and indispositions resulting from postoperative wounds.
Results. In the group of patients operated due to AAA according to the plan there were noted: 7 deaths per 301 cases, 5 reoperations because of critical leg ischaemia on the same day and 3 relaparotomies were performed due to bleeding into the abdominal cavity. All of the operations were conducted under general anaesthesia by laparotomy from the intermediate skin incision. 187 normal grafts and 114 bifurcated ones were implanted. The above group included 38 women and 263 men. In the other group 44 endoprostheses were implanted. The endovascular grafts were inserted from the surgical access in the groin to the iliac artery in one or two groins. All the 44 patients classified to the procedure of implantation stentgrafts and 61 patients operated on were asked to fill in the surveys. The results of the performed observations were the following: it was observed that in the group of patients with endoprostheses (group A) and 61 after surgical interventions (group B) in the period of 30 days after the intervention: 6% of A vs. 24% of B patients complained of pain disorders, 0% of A vs. 16% of B had problems with moving, 23% of A vs. 24% of B had troubles with sleeping, 20% of A vs. 49% of B had a feeling of low energy, 10% of A vs. 19% of B reported depression periods, 3% of A vs. 38% of B reported some disorders as a result of the performed operations, e.g. from postoperative wounds.
Conclusion. Endovascular techniques of endograft implantation allow a quicker return to good condition and assure one of a significantly smaller number of postoperative disorders. The quality of patients’ life in the period of 30 days after the surgical intervention is significantly better in comparison to the patients treated by means of the classical operation method.