Results of aorto-femoral bifurcation shunts (AFBSh) were compared with special reference to the methods of anesthesia (general anesthesia--GA and epidural anesthesia--EA) with spontaneous respiration and minimum sedation. It was found that use of GA gave lethality 4 times as high as after EA. In addition, GA was followed by considerably greater incidence of pneumonias and atelectases, myocardial infarctions, enteropareses, acute renal insufficiency. The results obtained allow to think EA with spontaneous respiration to be the method of choice in operations on the abdominal aorta in patients with a severe concomitant pathology.