Objective To collate information available in the literature regarding perioperative outcomes following elective laparoscopic abdominal aortic aneurysm repair.
Materials and methods Electronic databases were searched and a systematic review was performed. In total, 1256 abstracts were screened, from which 10 studies were included for analysis. Perioperative and technical outcomes were analysed.
Results In the totally laparoscopic repair of infra-renal aneurysms (n = 302), 30-day mortality ranged between 0% and 6% and in the laparoscopic-assisted cases (n = 547) ranged between 0% and 7%. Of the former group, 5–30% of cases were converted to open repair, with 6% reintervention rate, whereas there was a 5–10% conversion and 3% reintervention rate in the latter group.
Conclusions The outcomes from selected patients in selected centres demonstrate that elective laparoscopic repair of aortic aneurysms is feasible and comparable in safety to open repair; it remains unclear, however, whether there are substantial advantages of this method compared with open and endovascular repair.