Aneurysms of the supra-aortic trunks in Takayasu's disease - Report of twocases

Takayasu's arteritis is a chronic inflammatory disease of unknown etiology, which affects the aorta and its branches, The resulting lesions can be of steno-occlusive or aneurysmatic type; the latter form is relatively rare, T he authors report 2 cases which came under their observation for treatment, The first was a young man of 22 years with aneurysm of the common right ca rotid artery and of the subclavian left intrathoracic artery. The carotid a neurysm was operated first; arterial reconstruction was ensured by means of a dacron bypass as the saphenous vein was not usable. Three months later, exeresis of the subclavian aneurysm was performed with a left thoracotomy i n the IV space. The postoperative course was uneventful and no untoward eve nt has been observed during follow-up (15 months). The second case was a yo ung girl of 16 years with poststenotic aneurysmatic dilatation of the anony ma artery, tight stenosis of the left renal artery and occlusion of the rig ht renal artery. The patient underwent median sternotomy and removal of the aneurysmatic wall together with the stenosis, and a dacron patch was appli ed. During preoperative angiography, the stenosis of the left renal artery had been treated with PTA; one month after the first operation, a right aor to-renal bypass was fashioned with the saphenous vein, Postoperative stay w as free from complications on both occasions and complete normalization of the pressure values was obtained, which persists after 12 months.