Abstract

Surgical therapy for dissection of the aorta has had a high mortality. One contributing factor has been hemorrhage from the prosthesis and the suture lines. Recently, a new method of treatment with an intraluminal graft that requires no end-to-end anastomosis has been developed. Of the four patients with dissecting aneurysm of the aorta treated by inserting sutureless ringed intraluminal graft at the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, S.N.U.H., three were DeBakey type I [one with associated aortic insufficiency] and the other was DeBakey type III. Suspected etiology of the dissection was Marfan`s syndrome in one and hypertension in the others. Total cardiopulmonary bypass was utilized in repairing dissecting aneurysms of the ascending aorta [type A] and simple aortic crossclamping was used for the patient with dissecting aneurysm of the descending aorta. The basic technique consists of inserting the whole ringed graft into the true lumen of the dissected aorta and circumferentially ligating the aorta against the groove in the rings. The proximal ring of the graft effectively stabilized the flail aortic valve in patient with aortic insufficiency associated with dissection of the ascending aorta. There were no hospital deaths and one patient with type III dissecting aneurysm developed postoperative paraparesis and renal insufficiency which was resolved. Follow-up has been from 1 month to 16 months with no evidence of prosthetic problems, such as erosion, migration, or thrombosis.

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