Emergency Endovascular Repair in a Patient With Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm With Pelvic Transplant Kidneys: Case Report

Abstract

Abdominal aortic aneurysms after a kidney transplant are becoming treated more frequently owing to the extension of renal transplant in severely arteriosclerotic older patients. Renal transplant recipients with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease are prone to develop abdominal aortic aneurysms. We present the case of a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm that occurred in a renal transplant patient with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease. The patient was treated with emergency endovascular repair because open surgery could not be performed successfully owing to the presence of massive polycystic native kidneys and a liver that was occupying the entire peritoneal cavity. His postoperative course was uneventful without complications. The important lessons to be learned from our case are 2-fold: (1) Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease renal transplant recipients should be screened annually for abdominal aortic aneurysms to prevent ruptures and (2), emergency endovascular repair may be a preferred treatment in renal transplant recipients owing to its low surgical risk and success.