Management of extensive, chronic, dissecting aortic aneurysms after prior repair of the ascending aorta presents a technical challenge for surgeons. A symptomatic 64-year-old patient was admitted for elective surgical repair of an aortic annular dilatation, causing severe aortic regurgitation, and a Crawford type II extended thoracoabdominal aneurysm, 4 years after he underwent primary repair o...

Hypothermia is known to protect the myocardium and the spinal cord during ischemia. However the risk of complications increases with lower hypothermic conditions. In this paper we report a 62-year-old male patient with concomitant coronary artery disease who was surgically treated for a thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm and an abdominal paraanastomotic pseudoaneurysm using selective perfusion of...

We report the case of a patient with a chronic DeBakey type IIIb aneurysm who underwent thoracic endovascular aortic repair to seal the primary entry tear and stent-graft insertion to cover the re-entry tear at the renal artery. The procedure was performed in order to achieve complete thrombosis in the entire thoracoabdominal false lumen, leading to favorable aortic remodeling. Simultaneously, ...

Computer-aided imaging can aid complex endovascular repair of aortic dissections in locating the narrow true lumen and identifying perfusion of visceral vessels by the true and/or false lumen. Although these anatomic data are available for analysis during planning, they are not readily available during the procedure with conventional imaging systems. We report the use of "fusion imaging" to fac...

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) drainage is a routinely used adjunct in operation of thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm (TAAA), which may reduce the incidence of perioperative paraplegia by improving spinal cord perfusion. Neurological complications of CSF drainage have been reported, possibly due to excessive CSF drainage, and acute subdural hematoma (SDH) in particular may lead to catastrophic compli...

one reported series, the 5-year survival rate for patients with spinal cord injury was 44%, whereas it was 62% for those without spinal cord injury.19 Postoperative spinal cord injury is caused by several factors including ischemia, reperfusion injury, and postoperative hemodynamics. Many methods of protecting the spinal cord during thoracoabdominal aneurysm repair have been devised. These incl...

A 71-year-old man with newly diagnosed hypertension was referred for Technetium-99m mercaptoacetyltriglycine (Tc-99m MAG3) renal scintigraphy to evaluate the recent onset of impairment in renal functions. Dynamic imaging revealed activity flow which was suspicious for aortic aneurysm (AA) with a concurrent decrease in left renal blood flow. CT angiography of the thoracoabdominal aorta confirmed...

Thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm (TAAA) is a complicated aortic disease. Most treatments for other aortic aneurysms have already shifted from conventional open surgery to endovascular operation; but for TAAA, open surgery remains the gold standard treatment. Several alternative treatments such as hybrid operation as well as endovascular techniques are utilized for the treatment of TAAA. Some of...

Conventional open repair of thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms is still associated with severe complications and shows immediate mortality rates up to 20%. Although there is an increasing number of cases treated exclusively by an endovascular approach, renovisceral debranching still represents a valid alternative in high-risk patients for open surgery and in those patients where endovascular pro...