Saturday, December 04, 1999
New device fixes aortic aneurysms
Price Hill man first in Tristate to have procedure
BY TIM BONFIELD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Martin O'Connor, a 72-year-old resident of Price Hill, has become the first Tristate resident to be treated with a new way of fixing abdominal aortic aneurysms, a problem that can lead to massive, often deadly internal bleeding.
Vascular surgeons at Christ Hospital on Friday treated Mr. O'Connor with an AneuRx “stent graft,” a device that has been approved for use in the United States only since September.
The new device allows surgeons to repair aortic aneurysms from the inside, which can cut recovery time to days instead of weeks for patients who undergo traditional surgery.
“This truly does represent a significant advancement for patients who are at high risk (of not surviving) traditional surgery,” said Dr. Thomas Shimshak, director of the peripheral vascular division of the Carl and Edyth Lindner Center for Research and Education.
Dr. Shimshak performed the surgery with Dr. Peter Podore, director of vascular surgery at Christ Hospital.
An aneurysm, a weak part of a blood vessel, can bulge and burst, causing internal bleeding. Abdominal aortic aneurysms, which occur in the body's biggest blood vessel leading from the heart, are the most common type of aneurysm.
Doctors diagnose about 200,000 cases a year nationwide, according to Medtronic, the company that makes the AneuRx device. About 15,000 Americans die each year from burst abdominal aortic aneurysms.
Traditionally, surgeons have treated such aneurysms with a three- to four-hour pro cedure that involves making a large abdominal incision and replacing the diseased section of artery with a synthetic artery. Recovery often requires a week in the hospital plus several weeks of home recuperation.
But now, doctors can do the work from the inside, using the AneuRx stent graft, made by Medtronic Inc. of Minneapolis. The device was introduced in Europe in 1997. Then, after clinical trials in the United States, it won approval in September from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The Medtronic device is one of two available in the United States; the other is made by Guidant Corp. A third device made by Boston Scientific remains in clinical trials in the United Sates, Dr. Shimshak said.
The AneuRx stent graft is an expandable nickel-titanium mesh tube covered with polyester. Instead of a long abdominal incision, Mr. O'Connor's doctors made small incisions near the groin and threaded a catheter carrying the stent parts up the femoral artery and into the aorta.
Once the device reaches the trouble spot, it expands from the inside and acts like a “tube within a tube” to span the weak part of the aorta. The diamond-shaped stent rings are designed to keep the stent in place through friction alone. The device requires no stitching, hooks or barbs.
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