Davila, Victor

Abstract Melioidosis, an infection caused by Burkholderia pseudomallei, has a very high risk of mortality when treated, with an even higher risk of fatality if undiagnosed or not treated appropriately. It is endemic to Asia, Australia, South America, and the Caribbean; however, the number of melioidosis cases reported in the United States has been increasing. Therefore, physicians should be aware of this clinical entity and its possible presentations. Mycotic aneurysms due to B. pseudomallei are extremely rare, accounting for ~1%–2% of cases. Here we describe a rare case of melioidosis presenting as a mycotic aneurysm in the United States, highlight the potential for diagnostic challenges and epidemiologic concerns, and provide a review of mycotic aneurysm cases due to B. pseudomallei published to date.

AbstractLittle is known about the surgical challenges and outcomes of kidney transplantation (KT) in the face of severe iliac occlusive disease (IOD). We aim to examine our institution's experience and outcomes compared with all KT patients. Retrospective review of our multi-institutional transplant database identified patients with IOD requiring vascular surgery involvement for iliac artery endarterectomy at time of KT from 2000 to 2018. Clinical data, imaging studies, and surgical outcomes of 22 consecutive patients were reviewed. Our primary end-point was allograft survival. Secondary end-points included mortality and perioperative complications. A total of 6,757 KT were performed at our three sites (Florida, Arizona, and Minnesota); there were 22 (0.32%) patients receiving a KT with concomitant IOD requiring iliac artery endarterectomy. Mean patient age was 61.45 ± 7 years. There were 13 (59.1%) male patients. The most common etiology of renal failure was diabetic nephropathy in 10 patients (45.5%) followed by a combination of hypertensive/diabetic nephropathy in five patients (22.7%), and hypertensive nephrosclerosis in three patients (13.6%). The majority (n = 16, 72.7%) of patients received renal allografts from deceased donors and six (27.3%) were recipients from living donors. Mean time from dialysis to transplantation was 2.9 ± 2.9 years. Mean follow-up was 3.5 ± 2.5 years. Mean length of hospital stay was 6.3 ± 4.3 days (range: 3–18 days). Graft loss within 90 days occurred in two (9.1%) patients, one due to renal vein thrombosis and another due to acute tubular necrosis. Overall allograft survival was 90.1% at 1-year and 86.4% at 3-year follow-up. Overall mortality occurred in 6 (27.3%) patients. Perioperative complications (Clavien-Dindo Grade 2–4) occurred in 13 (59.1%) patients, including 10 (45.5%) with acute blood loss anemia requiring transfusion, 2 (9.1%) reoperations for hematoma evacuation, 1 (4.5%) ischemic colitis requiring total abdominal colectomy, and 1 (4.5%) renal vein thrombosis requiring nephrectomy. IOD patients selected for KT are not common and although challenging, they have similar outcomes to our standard KT patients. The 1- and 3-year allograft survivals were 90.1 and 86.4% versus 96.0 and 90.3% in the general KT patient population. With these excellent outcomes, we recommend expanding the criteria for KT to include patients with IOD with prior vascular surgery consultation to prevent progression of IOD or prevention of wait list removal in select patients who are otherwise good candidates for KT.

AbstractPrior studies suggest high prevalence of intracranial aneurysms (IA) in patients with infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA). We reviewed our multicenter experience in clinical detection/treatment of IAs in AAA patients and estimated the risk of IA in patients with AAA relative to patients without AAA. We reviewed cases of vascular surgery infrarenal AAA repairs at three Mayo Clinic sites from January 1998 to December 2018. Concurrent controls were randomly matched in a 1:1 ratio by age, sex, smoking history, and head imaging characteristics. Conditional logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios. We reviewed 2,300 infrarenal AAA repairs. Mean size of AAA at repair was 56.9 ± 11.4 mm; mean age at repair, 75.8 ± 8.0 years. 87.5% of the cases (n = 2014) were men. Head imaging was available in 421 patients. Thirty-seven patients were found to have 45 IAs for a prevalence of 8.8%. Mean size of IA was 4.6 ± 3.5 mm; mean age at IA detection, 72.0 ± 10.8 years. Thirty (81%) out of 37 patients were men. Six patients underwent treatment for IA: four for ruptured IAs and two for unruptured IAs. All were diagnosed before AAA repair. Treatment included five clippings and one coil-assisted stenting. Time from IA diagnosis to AAA repair was 16.4 ± 11.0 years. Two of these patients presented with ruptured AAA, one with successful repair and a second one that resulted in death. Odds of IA were higher for patients with AAA versus those without AAA (8.8% [37/421] vs. 3.1% [13/421]; OR 3.18; 95% confidence interval, 1.62–6.27, p < 0.001). Co-prevalence of IA among patients with AAA was 8.8% and is more than three times the rate seen in patients without AAA. All IAs were diagnosed prior to AAA repair. Surveillance for AAA after IA treatment could have prevented two AAA ruptures and one death.