Endografts Help Some AAA Patients

Although many patients live with a small aneurysm, larger aneurysms are prone to rupture. Ruptured AAAs cause many deaths each year. In traditional repair, a surgeon makes an incision in the abdomen, cuts out the damaged part of the aorta, and sews a graft in its place.

The new image-guided endovascular repair procedure uses a stent graft. This is a woven polyester tube with a metallic graft that is compressed inside a carrier catheter. Through an incision in the patient's groin, the stent graft is threaded via the catheter through arteries to the site of the aneurysm, where it is placed across the aneurismal segment and released. As the stent graft expands, it grips the normal arterial wall on both ends of the aneurysm, bypassing the bulge from the inside.

"When I'm asked who is best suited for the elective procedure, my answer is, the endograft is great for great-grandpa but not for grandpa,” said David M. Williams, M.D., professor of radiology at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, USA). "Someone who is healthy should have the durable, proven surgical procedure. But patients who are at risk, either because of advanced age or coexisting medical problems, are good candidates for the endograft.” Dr. Williams spoke about the procedure at a Radiological Society of North American (RSNA) media briefing on image-guided therapies.




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