Aim: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the mid and long terms outcomes of open and endovascular surgical treatment, as well as multilayer stent, in patients affected by Renal Artery Aneurysm (RAA).
Patients and methods: Twenty five patients with RAA (24 monolateral and 1 bilateral aneurysm, 26 aneurysms) were observed between 2000 and 2015: 4 were not treated due to the small size of the aneurysm (< 2.5 cm); out of the remaining, 16 underwent endovascular treatment, 2 were treated by open surgery consisting in aneurysmectomy and graft reconstruction and 5 (in 1 patient bilateral) were treated by ex vivo repair and autotransplantation.
Results: Out of the 22 patients treated for RAA, one patient operated upon open surgery presented an early thrombosis of a PTFE graft, followed by nephrectomy (4.7%); one patient underwent autotransplantation showed an ureteral kinking without functional consequences. In a follow-up ranging from 1 and 11 years (mean 5 years), no deaths were observed; all the renal arteries repaired were patents and 16 out of 21 patients had a significative reduction of systemic blood pressure.
Discussion: The choice of the best treatment is based on aneurysm's morphology according to Rundback's classification. The type I, involving the main renal artery, is always treated by endovascular approach; type II, involving renal artery bifurcations may be treated by open surgery or multilayer stents; type III (hilar or intraparenchymal aneurysms) needs only an open surgical treatment as autotransplantation.
Conclusion: Based on our experience it seems that most of RAAs may be treated by endovascular technique. The ex vivo autotransplantation represents the first-line treatment in hilar and intraparenchymal aneurysms. Multilayer stents seem to have good outcome in the treatment of aneurysms involving arterial bifurcations. Mid and long term results, related to kidney preservation and to normalization of blood pressure, seems satisfying.