Dr. Apostolidou Publishes Study on Local vs General Anesthesia During Endovascular Aneurysm Repair
Ioanna Apostolidou, MD, University of Minnesota Medical School Department of Anesthesiology co-authored “Decreased mortality with local versus general anesthesia in endovascular aneurysm repair for ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm in the Vascular Quality Initiative database” in the Journal of Vascular Surgery.
Using the Vascular Quality Initiative database, this study compared local anesthesia vs general anesthesia in endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) for patients presenting with ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm (rAAA) and suitable anatomy. EVAR is an accepted approach, but the effect of anesthesia modality on mortality outcomes in rAAA is not well described.
“Younger patients less than 75 years or patients without preoperative hypotension benefited the most from local anesthesia,” said Dr. Apostolidou, “This can be partially explained by the fact that ruptured hypotension is already an indication of second hit and activation of inflammatory cascade. In these circumstances, the type of anesthesia does not offer an additional benefit.”
This study demonstrated that local anesthesia for rAAA may be a safe alternative to general anesthesia for certain patients, with lower morbidity and improved mortality.
