Surgical Diseases of the Celiac and Mesenteric Arteries

Abstract

AS WITH other arteries, the celiac and mesenteric arteries may become suddenly occluded by an embolus, narrowed slowly by atherosclerosis and then perhaps occluded by a thrombus, involved by an aneurysm or a dissecting aneurysm, injured by either penetrating or closed wounds, be defective as a result of a congenital anomaly, rupture either because of a preexisting aneurysm or occasionally for no apparent reason, or become stenosed or aneurysmal as a result of one of the less common forms of arterial disease such as thromboangiitis obliterans or polyarteritis nodosa. In the past, interest centered upon the management of infarcted intestine or the resection of aneurysms of some of the more peripheral branches of these visceral arteries; but improvements in surgical technique together with improvements in arteriography, particularly lateral lumbar aortography and selective angiography of the branches of the abdominal aorta using a Seldinger catheter, have led during the past decade