Spinal cord ischemia after endovascular treatment of infrarenal aortic aneurysm. Case report and literature review

Spinal cord ischemia is a rare but catastrophic complication after endovascular treatment of infrarenal aortic aneurysm: only 14 cases are reported in the literature. A patient with a 6 cm infrarenal aortic aneurysm extending to both common iliac arteries and high surgical risk was submitted to endovascular repair with exclusion of both hypogastric arteries and surgical revascularization of the right hypogastric artery. The patient presented paraplegia, apallesthesia and superficial hyposensitivity immediately after the procedure. A spinal cord drainage was positioned with little improvement of superficial sensitivity. We undertook a systematic review of the literature on this topic.