Mini-invasive aortic surgery: a 2 year experience.

The aim of this study was to evaluate a less invasive technique for the exposure of the infrarenal aorta and its impact on the treatment of patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA). Fortyfour patients with AAA we re prospectively selected f o r minilaparotomy a ortic exposure and repair using asmall periumbilical midline incision, intra-abdominal nondisplaced retraction of the small bowel and conventional hand-sewn vascular anastomosis. Perioperative comparisons with a contemporary group of AAA patients treated with long, open midline incision and extracavitary small bowel retraction were made.