Aortic Arch Aneurysm Repair using a Prosthetic Graft with a Pre-mounted Distal Stent (Frozen Elephant Trunk) / 대한흉부외과학회지

ABSTRACT

Difficulty in exposing anastomotic sites is a frequently encountered problem during surgical repair of a distal aortic arch aneurysm via median sternotomy or lateral thoracotomy. Endovascular repair has the limitation that it usually requires surgical rerouting of some of the brachiocephalic branches in order to get sufficient length for proximal fixation of the stent-graft. To take advantage of each approach, we fixed the distal end of the prosthetic graft by means of a pre-mounted metallic stent instead of performing conventional surgical anastomosis during the repair of distal arch aneurysms with using median sternotomy and hypothermic circulatory arrest. We report here on our experience with such 3 patients.