Methods: Between January 2000 and January 2009, 13,995 patients who underwent open heart surgery under extracorporeal circulation in our clinic were retrospectively analyzed. Among these patients, 50 with a previous history of cardiac surgery (39 males, 11 females; mean age 52.1±13.9 years; range 21 to 80 years) followed by an aortic pathology were enrolled. The mean time lapse between two operations was 8.5±7.4 months (range 1-31 months).

Results: The rate of total mortality was %32 (n=15). All of the five patients who underwent emergent operations died. The mean aortic diameter during the first operation was 4.1 cm, while it was 5.5 cm during the second operation. Age, aortic cross-clamping time and total perfusion time were higher in the mortality group compared to the survivors (p<0.05).

Conclusion: In parallel with the increasing life expectancy, it should be kept in mind that the frequency of redo operations may increase with an increasing mortality rate depending on the age. More radical surgical interventions, thus, may be used in lieu of palliative approaches during the first operation.