Surgical treatment of multiple inflammatory aortic aneurysms of the aortic arch and thoracoabdominal aorta

Abstract

A 67-year-old woman hospitalized with pleuritis was treated with antibiotics. Although the inflammation was resolved, saccular aneurysms in the aortic arch and thoracoabdominal aorta enlarged rapidly. We conducted graft replacement of the aortic arch, but despite careful blood pressure control, the thoracoabdominal aneurysm rapidly enlarged even further. We conducted graft replacement of the thoracoabdominal aorta on day 25 after the first operation. The postoperative course was uneventful and no exacerbation was found 18 months after the second operation. These multiple aortic aneurysms were diagnosed as inflammatory because bacterial tests of blood and aneurysmal walls were all negative and cells infiltrating aneurysmal walls were pathologically plasma cells.