Endovascular management of malperfusion in acute type B aortic dissections.

Purpose: To examine the feasibility, efficacy, and midterm results of endovascular stent-graft management of acute type B aortic dissection complicated by renal, visceral, or lower limb malperfusion.

Methods: A retrospective review was conducted to identify all patients with acute type B dissection treated endovascularly at a single center between 1998 and 2009. Of the 85 patients identified, 23 (27%) consecutive patients (20 men; mean age 60.

Thoracic endografting is rapidly approaching trim time.

Thoracic aortic endografting is proving to be extremely useful for correcting a variety of lesions with few complications, and several devices have recently been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Endovascular intervention avoids sternotomy or thoracotomy, chest tubes, respirators, general anesthesia, and blood loss is limited. Compared with traditional open surgery, complications such as paraplegia, renal failure, and cardiac and pulmonary difficulties are minimized; hospital and rehabilitation times are also reduced.

Technical tips for thoracic aortic endografting.

Thoracic aortic endografting is proving to be extremely useful for correcting a variety of lesions with few complications. Endovascular intervention avoids sternotomy or thoracotomy, the use of chest tubes, respirators, and general anesthesia, and limits blood loss. Compared with traditional open surgery, complications such as paraplegia, renal failure, and cardiac and pulmonary difficulties are minimized; hospital and rehabilitation times are also reduced.

Application of endograft to treat thoracic aortic pathologies: a single center experience.

Purpose: To evaluate our experience of thoracic endoluminal graft (ELG) repair of various thoracic aortic pathologies using a commercially available device approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Our patient population includes patients eligible for open surgical repair and those with prohibitive surgical risk.

Methods: From March 1998 to March 2006, endovascular stent repair of the thoracic aorta was performed on 406 patients with 324 patients (median age 72; 200 male) receiving the Gore Excluder endograft.

Novel endovascular repair of the small thoracic aorta: customizing off-the-shelf endoluminal grafts.

Treatment of the small thoracic aorta is not currently amenable to standard endovascular repair. New customized endovascular approaches are necessary for these patients who are not candidates, for open repair. We describe a novel endovascular repair of a thoracic aortic pseudoaneurysm associated with a prior coarctation repair.

Gore TAG Thoracic Endoprosthesis: the first US FDA-approved thoracic endograft.

Open surgical repair of thoracic aortic lesions carries a significant risk of complications, including death. Minimally invasive approaches, however, may improve outcomes. Clinical trials of the Gore TAG Thoracic Endoprosthesis device indicate that subjects receiving the graft are less likely to experience major adverse events, less intraprocedural blood loss, shorter intensive care unit and hospital stays, and reduced recovery times than surgical patients.

Endovascular approaches for complex forms of recurrent aortic coarctation.

Purpose: To review a single-center experience with endovascular treatment of recurrent aortic coarctation in adults.

Methods: Since 1998, 11 patients (9 men; mean age 48+/-15 years, range 16-63) with recurrent aortic coarctation following previous coarctation repair were referred to our institution for treatment. Clinical presentations included pseudoaneurysm (n=2), restenosis (n=3), pseudoaneurysm accompanied by restenosis (n=4), and rupture of a post-coarctation pseudoaneurysm (n=2).

Endovenous ablation of incompetent saphenous veins: a large single-center experience.

Purpose: To evaluate the effectiveness of endovenous treatment of symptomatic varicose veins using the endovenous laser (EVL) or radiofrequency (RF) energy over a >3-year follow-up.

Methods: From February 2002 to August 2005, 981 consecutive patients (770 women; mean age 51 years, range 15-90) with symptomatic varicose veins in 1250 lower limbs underwent endovenous ablation of 1149 great saphenous veins (GSV) and 101 small saphenous veins (SSV) under tumescent anesthesia without intravenous sedation or regional anesthesia. There were 990 GSV and 101 SSV procedures using EVL; 159 GSVs were treated with RF energy.

Surgical correction of ascending type a thoracic aortic dissection: simultaneous endoluminal exclusion of the arch and distal aorta.

Purpose: To describe repair of an ascending type A dissection combining an open ascending tube graft with simultaneous great vessel transposition and antegrade deployment of an endoluminal graft across the arch and into the descending thoracic aorta.

Case Report: A 50-year-old man was evaluated at an outside hospital and transferred to our service for treatment of an ascending aortic dissection with associated lower extremity ischemia. Imaging identified an aortic dissection extending from the aortic root to the aortic bifurcation and into the right common iliac artery.

Great vessel transposition for antegrade delivery of the TAG endoprosthesis in the proximal aortic arch.

Purpose: To report a technique for antegrade delivery of the TAG stent-graft during repair of lesions in the proximal aortic arch.

Technique: Via an 8-cm median sternotomy, a bifurcated graft, usually 14 or 16 mm in diameter, is anastomosed to the ascending aorta with 4-0 Prolene suture; a 10-mm straight graft is cut obliquely and anastomosed to the heel of the bifurcated graft for delivery of the endograft antegrade across the aortic arch. The great vessels in turn are clamped, transected at the arch, and sutured to the bypass graft.

Endoluminal stent-graft stabilization for thoracic aortic dissection.

Purpose: To review our experience with thoracic endografting for type B aortic dissection using the TAG Endoprosthesis.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed of data collected prospectively from March 2000 to July 2004 under an investigational device exemption protocol for the TAG thoracic endograft. In this time period, 40 patients (29 women; mean age 67 years, range 39-91) were treated with this endograft for type B aortic dissection.

Stent grafts for the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms.

Stent grafting for treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) has been a major advance in endovascular surgery. Initial success with the original endoluminal stent graft encouraged worldwide study of the technology. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) insisted on considerable experience with the devices before approval because of early problems with device rupture, stent fracture, fabric perforation, graft migration, and modular separation.

Endovascular surgery and pathology of the thoracic aorta.

Although abdominal aortic aneurysms are the most common aortic pathology in the general population, the thoracic aorta is also a frequent site of aneurysms, chronic dissections, transections, and other potentially life-threatening pathologies. Not all of these lesions are amenable to endovascular repair; however, early evidence suggests that endovascular intervention in selected patients has a high rate of acute and midterm success. Indeed, the endovascular procedure reduces operating time and the need for blood transfusions and usually results in shorter intensive care unit and hospital stays compared with open surgery.

Future potential of endovascular techniques for vascular surgeons.

In his presidential address to the American Association for Vascular Surgery in 2000, the late Dr. John Porter announced that there was insufficient time in the vascular training program to entertain endovascular technology because of the volume of vascular surgery techniques that must be learned. His philosophy accurately depicted the prevailing attitude of vascular surgical academia until very recently, and this restrictive stance has caused gradual but profound diminution in the caseload of vascular surgeons who are not trained in endovascular surgery techniques.

Endovascular therapy in prevention and management of coronary-subclavian steal.

Background: The optimal management of patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) who have proximal subclavian artery stenosis (SAS) is not well established. SAS may lead to flow reversal through a patent in situ internal mammary artery graft, resulting in myocardial ischemia (coronary-subclavian steal). We review our experience in prevention and management of coronary-subclavian steal.

Crossing the limbs: a useful adjunct for successful deployment of the AneuRx stent-graft.

Purpose: To describe a technique for deploying an AneuRx stent-graft in an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) with an acutely angled aortic neck.

Technique: In routine cases, the AneuRx stent-graft main body is positioned with the nose cone notch facing the contralateral side. In severely angulated aortic necks, however, the main body of the AneuRx stent-graft can be positioned with the nose cone notch and iliac limb gate facing the ipsilateral side; this dramatically reduces the acuity of the angle at the aortic neck and the iliac gate.

The AneuRx stent-graft since FDA approval: single-center experience of 230 cases.

Purpose: To compare a single-center experience with the AneuRx stent-graft system before and after FDA approval to results from the multicenter phase II clinical trial.

Methods: The medical records of 230 consecutive patients (218 men; mean age 74 years) undergoing AneuRx stent-graft implantation for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) exclusion since September 1999 were reviewed to collect patient characteristics, aneurysm morphology, procedure variables, perioperative morbidity, mortality, and short-term outcome. These data were compared to the 30 patients treated at our institution during the AneuRx phase II clinical trial and to the overall multicenter trial data.

Acute traumatic rupture of the thoracic aorta treated with endoluminal stent grafts.

Background: Endovascular technologies provide a new therapeutic option in the treatment for acute traumatic rupture of the thoracic aorta. We report our experience with endoluminal stent graft repair of thoracic aortic ruptures.

Methods: Five patients underwent repair of the thoracic aorta with an endoluminal stent graft for acute traumatic rupture.

Endoluminal stent graft repair of aortobronchial fistulas.

Objective: To describe our experience with endoluminal stent graft repair of aortobronchial fistulas.

Methods: We reviewed the records of patients treated with endoluminal stent grafting of aortobronchial fistulas at a private teaching hospital. All patients underwent the following diagnostic studies: computed tomography, angiography, bronchoscopy, and transesophageal echocardiography.

Transrenal fixation of aortic endografts: intermediate follow-up of a single-center experience.

Purpose: To examine the fate of the renal ostia following transrenal fixation of endovascular aortic stent-grafts.

Methods: Thirty-five patients (29 men; mean age 75 years) undergoing endovascular repair for abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) had transrenal fixation of the uncovered proximal stent due to a short (< 1.5 cm long) or conical neck or a periprocedural endoleak.