Endovascular aneurysm repair is a treatment option used to minimize the risk of a thoracic aortic aneurysm opening up. It is an alternative to open surgical repair. A thoracic aortic aneurysm is an abnormal widening or ballooning of a portion of the body's largest artery (the aorta) that passes through the chest.
For endovascular repair of a thoracic aneurysm, surgeons use long, thin tubes called catheters threaded through your blood vessels to place a fabric tube, called a stent-graft, inside the weakened portion of the aorta. The graft is stronger than the weakened aorta and allows blood to pass through it without causing a bulge. The catheters are inserted in small incisions in the groin and are guided through the blood vessels. During the procedure, the vascular surgeon will use live x-ray pictures viewed on a video screen to guide a stent-graft to the site of the aneurysm.
Endovascular stent-graft repair allows surgeons to repair the aneurysm without cutting open the chest and without putting the patient on a heart-lung machine. It requires a shorter recovery time than open surgical aneurysm repair, with the hospital stay reduced to two or three days.
An additional advance in treatment involves the use of a fenestrated stent-graft, which is a stent that is custom-fitted to the patient’s body. Vascular surgeons at TriHealth Heart Institute were the first to utilize the fenestrated stent in Cincinnati.
We use endovascular aneurysm repair to treat the following vascular conditions:
A thoracic aortic aneurysm is an expansion or bulge in the artery wall resulting from a weakening of the artery wall.