Immunonutrition and Thoracoabdominal Aorta Aneurysm Repair

Elective surgical repair of a Thoraco (Abdominal) Aneurysm Aorta (T(A)AA) is associated with high mortality and morbidity. Important complications are renal failure, paraplegia and respiratory failure.

A retrospective study we performed also revealed high post operative infection rates and high incidence of respiratory failure.

Improving immune status may reduce the occurrence of infections due to immune chances. Immunonutrition may enhance the patient's immune system. Many clinical trials of immunonutrition in critically ill and surgical patients have been performed. In meta-analyses it has been shown that immunonutrition results in lower infections rates and shorter 'length of stay' in hospital after major surgery. Immunonutrition has not been studied yet in TAA(A) surgery. Controversy exists in septic patients.

We designed a prospective randomized placebo controlled trial to study the effect of immunonutrition on time on ventilatorsupport, lenght of stay in the intensive care unit and incidence of postoperative infections after TAA(A) surgery. Patients start with oral supplements besides their normal diet 5 days before surgery. After the operation, the nutrition is continued by protocol and administered by nasogastric tube until normal entral feeding is possible. The control group wil receive iso caloric and iso nitrogen nutrition.