Endovascular repair for acute rupture of the descending thoracic aorta.

Purpose:To report the endovascular treatment of acute descending thoracic aortic rupture as an alternative to open surgery in high-risk patients.Methods:Between November 1999 and April 2001, 10 patients (7 men; median age 75 years) underwent endovascular stent-grafting of the descending thoracic aorta for acute rupture from an aneurysm (n = 7) or blunt trauma (n = 3). All patients were evaluated as high operative risk. The aortic rupture was associated with isolated mediastinal hematomas (n = 7), left hemothorax (n = 2), or aortobronchial fistula (n = 1). The Excluder Thoracic Endoprosthesis was used predominantly.Results:The mean interval to the endovascular repair was 45.3 ± 28.4 hours. All stent-grafts were successfully deployed. Two patients required common iliac artery access, and 2 needed covered stents for iatrogenic iliac artery rupture. There was 1 postoperative death (myocardial infarction) and no renal failure, neurological complications, embolization, stent-graft migration, or perigraft leak. ...