Anesthesia for Open Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair

Abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) are the 13th leading cause of death in the United States 1 and approximately 40,000 patients undergo elective AAA repair each year.2 With the population aging, this number is expected to increase. Although the use of endovascular AAA repair is becoming more common, open repair, first reported by Dubost et al. in 1951 remains the gold standard.2 This chapter will review the etiology, risk factors, diagnosis, pathophysiology, operative technique, perioperative management, and postoperative complications of patients undergoing open AAA repair.