SELECTIVE INDICATIONS FOR HEART EXPLORATI ONS BEFORE AORTIC-SURGERY

Objectives: There is no consensus on heart explorations required befor e infra-renal reconstruction surgery of the aorta, We proposed a selec tive approach in 81 consecutive patients undergoing elective surgery. Methods: Pour clinical criteria were recorded: age over 70 years, diab etes mellitus and a clinical history of coronary artery disease or hea rt failure. Results: For 23 patients (group 1), none of the criteria w ere positive, Surgery was performed in all without prior exploration, There was one death (4.8%) and one post-operative cardiac event (4.8%) in this group. The 58 other patients (group 2) had at least one of th e criteria and had complementary heart explorations before surgery, Th ere were 2 deaths (3.4%) and 5 cases of cardiac morbidity (8.6%) in th is group. Conclusion: The lack of any statistical difference between t he two groups with and without risk criteria has led us to propose sel ective indications for preoperative explorations based on specific cli nical criteria.