ORIGINAL ARTICLE   

Italian Journal of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery 2023 March;30(1):7-10

DOI: 10.23736/S1824-4777.22.01569-8

Copyright © 2022 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Comparative analysis of different endovascular modalities to treat splenic artery aneurysms

Giulia BERTAGNA ¹, Nicola TROISI ¹ ✉, Lorenzo TORRI ¹, Francesco CANOVARO ², Francesca TOMEI ¹, Daniele ADAMI ¹, Roberto CIONI ², Orsola PERRONE ², Raffaella BERCHIOLLI ¹

¹ Unit of Vascular Surgery, Department of Translational Research and New Technologies in Medicine and Surgery, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy; ² Department of Interventional Radiology, University Hospital of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

BACKGROUND: Endovascular treatment of splenic artery aneurysms (SAAs) is widely applied in the current clinical practice. The aim of this paper was to describe our single center experience on endovascular treatment of SAAs, comparing the outcomes obtained with two different endovascular techniques.
METHODS: Between January 2010 and December 2021, 35 patients with certain diagnosis of non-ruptured SAA were admitted to our center. Twenty-eight patients treated with packing or sandwich techniques were included in the study analysis. Primary outcome measures analyzed were 30-day mortality and mean hospital stay. Secondary outcome measures analyzed were freedom from splenectomy, and the rate of postembolization syndrome. Chi-square test was used to compare the two endovascular techniques. Statistical significance was defined as P value <0.05.
RESULTS: The mean age was 56.5±12.8 years. Most of patients were females (22, 78.6%). Eighteen patients underwent sandwich technique (Group A), and the remaining 10 packing technique (Group B). Technical success was 100%. Intraoperative and 30-day mortality were 0 in both groups. Mean hospital stay was 4.2±4.0 days in Group A, and 2.3±3.9 days in Group B (P=0.93). Postembolization syndrome occurred in 9 cases (50%) in Group A, and in 4 cases (40%) in Group B (P=0.521). Only one patient in Group A (5.5%) required splenectomy (P=0.392).
CONCLUSIONS: Packing and sandwich techniques seem to be similarly safe and effective in treating SAAs and have no statistically significant differences in terms of early mortality and morbidity.

KEY WORDS: Splenic artery; Aneurysm; Vascular surgical procedures