Stage II Procedure
In patients who were planned for Stage II (n=60, 41%), 54/60 patients (90%) underwent repair, while 6/60 patients (10%) did not (5 patients expired and 1 patient was lost to follow-up) . In patients who were not planned for early Stage II (n=87, 59%), 4/87 patients eventually required repair for progression of aneurysm disease (4.6%). Ultimately, 58/152 patients (38%) underwent Stage II repair. Figure 5 depicts the distribution of cases throughout the study period.
Stage II repair was conducted electively in 50 patients (86%) and urgently in 8 patients (14%). Aortic repair was confined to the descending aorta in 43 patients (74%) while 15 patients (26%) had thoracoabdominal repair. A cerebrospinal fluid drain was utilized in 37/58 patients (64%). In patients planned for Stage II, the median inter-stage interval was 5 weeks (range: 0-14) (Table 3).
In patients who underwent Stage II procedure (n=58), operative mortality (30-day or in-house) occurred in 6 patients (10.3%). One patient expired intraoperatively, 2 patients suffered fatal strokes, and 3 patients expired due to post-operative complications (causes were: acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), septic shock from ischemic colitis, and hemorrhagic shock due to bleeding). Post-operative strokes occurred in 7 patients (12%) and post-operative paraplegia occurred in 3 patients (5.1%). Re-exploration for bleeding was required in 4 patients (7%) and 1 patient (1.7%) required renal replacement therapy (RRT).