During the EVAR procedure a patient with a severe aortic aneurysm was treated with a personalized endovascular prosthesis in the thoracic-abdominal aortic section.
This procedure was carried out last November 23rd in the hybrid room of Cardiocentro Ticino theatre.
The successful procedure has been realized in collaboration with PD Dr. Jos Van den Berg, deputy chief of the radiology group at Ospedale Regionale di Lugano (EOC) and by Dr. Rafael Trunfio of the cardiac surgery group at Cardiocentro Ticino.
Instead of open heart surgery, which requires a large incision of the chest and abdomen, the endovascular surgery uses only two catheters introduced into the groin to the femoral arteries. The this first case a third catheter was used, introduced from the subclavian artery.
The procedure was technically extremely complex because of the dilated aortic section involved in the aneurysm and above all because of this region also involves the two renal arteries and the arteries which supply the internal abdominal organs. The procedure has been successfully carried out in the Cardiocentro.
The personalized (patient specific) aortic prosthesis had been created by Cook Medical, constructed from 3D reconstruction of the abdominal aorta from CT images. In this way the prosthesis had holes at the location where the abdominal arteries branched off.
It is only through the excellent technologies of the hybrid room, the experience of the radiology and the cardiac surgery departments and the 10-year collaboration between Cardiocentro and Ospedale Civico, that this procedure has been executed, preventing an open heart surgery for this patient.