The Retroperitoneal Approach to the Abdominal Aorta

Within the community of the vascular surgeons, it has always been a matter of debate which surgical approach is tolerated better by the patient undergoing a reconstruction of the abdominal aorta. When the first reconstructions were performed in 1951 an extraperitoneal approach was preferred. Oudot (1) performed the first aorto-bi-iliac graft for aorto-iliac occlusive disease. Dubost (2) was the first to replace an aneurysm of the abdominal aorta. Both of them used a retroperitoneal approach. However, in the following years, most surgeons turned to the midline transperitoneal and infracolic ap-