rifampin and Graft-Occlusion--Vascular

Treatment of aortic graft infection with graft excision and axillofemoral bypass may carry an increased risk of limb loss, aortic stump blowout, and pelvic ischemia. A review of patients with aortic graft infection treated with in situ prosthetic graft replacement was undertaken to determine if mortality, limb loss, and reinfection rates were improved with this technique.. The clinical data of 25 patients, 19 males and 6 females, with a mean age of 68 years (range 35 to 83), with aortic graft infection, treated between January 1, 1989, and December 31, 1998, by in situ prosthetic graft replacement were reviewed. Follow-up was complete in the 23 surviving patients and averaged 36 months (range 4 to 103).. Twenty aortofemoral, 3 aortoiliac, and 2 straight aortic graft infections were treated with excision and in situ replacement with standard polyester grafts in 16 patients (64%), or with rifampin-soaked collagen or gelatin-impregnated polyester grafts in 9 patients (36%). Fifteen patients (60%) had aortic graft enteric fistulas, 8 patients (32%) had abscesses or draining sinuses, and 2 patients (8%) had bacterial biofilm infections. Thirty-day mortality was 8% (2 of 25). There were no early graft occlusions or amputations. There was one late graft occlusion. There were no late amputations. The reinfection rate was 22% (5 grafts). All reinfections occurred in patients operated upon for occlusive disease. Only one reinfection occurred in the rifampin-soaked graft group (11% versus 29%, P = NS). Reinfection tended to be lower in patients with aortoenteric fistulas and without abscess. Autogenous tissue coverage provided statistically significant protection against reinfection. There were no late deaths related to in situ graft infection.. Patients treated with in situ graft replacement had an 8% mortality and 100% limb salvage rate. Reinfection rates were similar to those of extra-anatomic bypass, but a trend of lower reinfection rates with rifampin-impregnated grafts was apparent. Patients with aortoenteric fistula and without abscess appear to be well treated by the technique of in situ prosthetic grafting and autogenous tissue coverage.

Topics: Abscess; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Anti-Bacterial Agents; Aorta; Biofilms; Blood Vessel Prosthesis; Blood Vessel Prosthesis Implantation; Collagen; Female; Femoral Artery; Follow-Up Studies; Gelatin; Graft Occlusion, Vascular; Humans; Iliac Artery; Intestinal Fistula; Male; Middle Aged; Polyesters; Postoperative Complications; Prosthesis-Related Infections; Recurrence; Reoperation; Retrospective Studies; Rifampin; Survival Rate; Treatment Outcome

Every effort to reduce synthetic graft infection is welcome and when designing antibiotic-bonded grafts it is important not to increase graft thrombogenicity. In order to study the acute thrombogenicity of rifampicin-soaked gelatin-sealed Dacron grafts compared with untreated gelatin-sealed Dacron grafts, an experimental carotid artery sheep model was used. Twenty sheep were anaesthetised and 7-cm-long 5-mm-wide externally supported gelatin-sealed knitted Dacron grafts were sutured end to end into each carotid artery after excising a portion of that vessel. Test grafts had previously been immersed for 15 min in a rifampicin solution (1 mg ml-1) while control grafts were immersed in physiological saline for 15 min. There were two groups with 10 sheep in each. In one group the blood flow through the grafts was unrestricted but in the second the flow was restricted to 25 ml min-1. Platelets from sheep labelled with 111In and sheep fibrinogen labelled with 125I were injected intravenously. The isotope activities were continuously measured proximally and distally over the grafts for 4 h. With unrestricted flow 4 out of 10 rifampicin-soaked grafts occluded compared with 2 out of 10 control grafts (N.S.). Time to occlusion, thrombus weight, platelet and fibrinogen activity did not differ. In the restricted flow group 9 out of 10 rifampicin-soaked grafts occluded compared with 6 out of 10 control grafts (N.S.). The time to occlusion did not differ. The thrombus weight in the rifampicin group was significantly higher compared with the control group.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Topics: Animals; Blood Flow Velocity; Blood Vessel Prosthesis; Carotid Arteries; Female; Fibrinogen; Gelatin; Graft Occlusion, Vascular; Indium Radioisotopes; Iodine Radioisotopes; Male; Organometallic Compounds; Oxyquinoline; Platelet Adhesiveness; Polyethylene Terephthalates; Radionuclide Imaging; Rifampin

The risk of infection in vascular prosthetic conduits appears to be greatest in the perioperative period and the organism most frequently found is Staphylococcus aureus. Previous work suggests that antibiotics must be chemically bonded to the material to resist rapid washout caused by the flow of blood through the graft. The exception to this is rifampin, which remains fixed in Dacron prostheses after passive addition of the agent to aliquots of blood used to clot the interstices of porous Dacron grafts. This characteristic of rifampin is presumed to be caused by its poor water solubility. This potential infection resistance was challenged in a standard model of a canine infrarenal aortic graft by intravenous infusion of S. aureus organisms (10(7)) in the perioperative period. The grafts of five animals were preclotted with 9 ml of autogenous blood plus 1 ml of rifampin (60 mg/ml). A second group had similar procedures with 1 ml of cefazolin (238 mg/ml) substituted for the rifampin, and a control group had 1 ml of saline solution added to the 9 ml aliquot of blood. The animals were killed at 3 weeks and examined for clinically apparent infection. Rings of the graft material were also removed aseptically and cultured. All five grafts preclotted with cefazolin had clinical and culture evidence of infection (S. aureus), as did the grafts of three of the five control dogs. None of the grafts preclotted with rifampin was infected (p less than 0.05). Addition of rifampin to the blood used to clot the graft interstices appears to be a simple way of imparting graft resistance to perioperative sepsis.

Topics: Animals; Aorta, Abdominal; Blood Vessel Prosthesis; Dogs; Graft Occlusion, Vascular; Polyethylene Terephthalates; Rifampin; Staphylococcal Infections; Surgical Wound Infection; Time Factors