IN ARTERIAL SURGERY there is no complication more feared or respected than infection and the resultant anastomotic disruption and hemorrhage that endangers life or limb. In situations that require multiple ligations, the surgeon must guard against complications that may result in the loss of a leg, or even the patient's life. In the past, various articles and editorials have emphasized the dangers of infection, and certainly arterial surgery is one field in which prophylactic antibiotics are indeed indicated. In recent years, some of the late complications of aortic grafting procedures have manifested themselves in gastrointestinal bleeding secondary either to aneurysmal breakdown of homografts or to suture line leaks of arterial prostheses. A rather nonaggressive attitude had been followed in the early experience with such cases. Several reports of resection and replacement of grafts under these conditions have made their way into the literature when the patient recovered; however, the majority