Abstract
Aim
to describe good outcomes in a case with Aortic graft infection (AGI) managed with Bovine patch and outline management of AGI.
Method
Literature review utilising keywords ‘’Aortic graft infection’’AND’’Bovine Patch’’ revealed initially 1350 articles, all studies in English were included, all duplicates were removed, screening was performed using the PRISMA flow. To correlate with the findings, we followed up a 72-year-old patient who presented with aortic graft infection followed by graft explantation and a fashioned Bovine graft insertion and followed up for 1 year for any re-infection in the clinics.
Results
Literature search resulted 73 articles discussing the role of Bovine Patch as a choice in prevention of Aortic graft re-infection. In our case, there was no clinical nor radiological evidence of Bovine patch re-infection for over a year. Literature review showed that AGI is a rare but serious complication with mortality up to 60%.The main management is IV antibiotics, followed by graft explantation and consideration of re-implantation of various types of grafts. The European society of vascular surgery (ESVS) guidelines recommend re-implantation with an aortic antibiotic soaked graft, yet re-infection rate is quoted at 20%. however, in our case Bovine graft was free from re-infection at 1 year follow up.
Conclusions
IV anitbioics and explantation remain the mainstay for treatment of aortic grafts infection, however, there is increasing evidence that Bovine grafts show excellent freedom from re-infection at follow up. Hence, this might be the conduit of choice when performing such surgeries; however, more evidence is needed.
Late onset thoracic aortic graft infection: A case report
