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The intervention took place on August 26 in a patient, a 72-year-old man, who was discharged two weeks later.
Vascular surgeons at the Miguel Servet University Hospital in Zaragoza have implanted for the first time in Spain a new device for the treatment of thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms.
The intervention took place on August 26 in a patient, a 72-year-old male, who was discharged two weeks later, reports the Government of Aragon.
An aneurysm is an abnormal widening of a portion of an artery due to a weakness in the blood vessel wall. In the case of the aorta, it is the dilation of the walls of the largest artery in the human body.
This is an extremely serious problem that sometimes cannot be detected until the aorta ruptures with fatal consequences.
On other occasions, it is located in time to adopt various solutions: open surgery or implantation of an intravascular prosthesis. This second option has the advantage of minimizing surgical risks and being suitable for patients who are ruled out from open surgery due to their delicate condition.
Complex aortic endovascular treatment techniques are already being developed in different hospitals in Spain, with Servet being one of the reference centers.
Now, the Vascular Surgery team has gone one step further by being selected to implant this type of new prosthesis, called E-nside, from the Jotec company, and which has two notable peculiarities: it is standard manufacturing and has a design that speeds up the surgical procedure.
Dr. Ana Cristina Marzo, from the Servet Angiology and Vascular Surgery service, explains that the fact that the prosthesis is standard allows for shorter times, given that personalized ones require a month of design and another of manufacturing.
“It has been seen that the majority of patients have certain characteristics and, according to the data studied, prostheses have been manufactured that are suitable for a large number of patients who do not have to wait to undergo surgery,” says the doctor. “Sometimes these patients cannot wait,” warns José Antonio Lechón, also a vascular surgeon at the Zaragoza hospital.
The second characteristic of these prostheses is that they have been designed with cannulas that facilitate the catheterization process of the different branches of the aorta and speed it up.
Diagnosed cases of aortic aneurysm are becoming more frequent. The aging of the population leads to a greater number of patients with arteriosclerosis, which weakens the walls of the arteries and increases the risk of rupture.
Usually, dilations of this aorta are diagnosed casually when the patient undergoes other General Surgery or Urology treatments.
Vascular surgeons then monitor the patient to find out if the aneurysm grows, how much and at what rate and assess whether it is necessary to operate with open surgery or implant prostheses with techniques that do not require opening the patients' chest or abdomen.
