Risks of Open Surgery:

Death - There is about a 1 in 10 (a 10%)chance of dying from this operation. The risk for an individual patient however changes with several factors. Firstly there are surgeon factors - vascular specialists who do more than 15 - 20 cases per year do better than those non-specialist surgeons who do a mixture of surgery and who do fewer than 10 cases a year. Secondly the younger and fitter the patient, the more likely they are to get through the surgery alive and well.

Complications - Apart from death there are risks of complications:

Wound infection, graft infection, heart attack, pulmonary embolism, dead leg, dead bowel, impotence, urinary tract infection.

However, despite these gloomy statistics, most patients get over their surgery, returning home 7 - 14 days after operation and getting back to normal life over a period of about 3 months