Endovascular Treatment of Acute and Chronic Thoracic Aortic Injury

Our aim is to present midterm results after endovascular repair of acute and chronic blunt aortic injury. Between December 1999 and December 2005, 13 patients were endovascularly treated for blunt aortic injury. Ten patients, 8 men and 2 women, mean age 38.7 years, were treated for acute traumatic injury in the isthmus region of thoracic aorta. Stent-graftings were performed between the fifth hour and the sixth day after injury. Three patients (all males; mean age, 66 years; range, 59–71 years) were treated due to the presence of symptoms of chronic posttraumatic pseudoaneurysm of the thoracic aorta (mean time after injury, 29.4 years, range, 28–32). Fifteen stent-grafts were implanted in 13 patients. In the group with acute aortic injury one patient died due to failure of endovascular technique. Lower leg paraparesis appeared in one patient; the other eight patients were regularly followed up (1–72 months; mean, 35.6 months), without complications. In the group with posttraumatic pseudoaneurysms all three patients are alive. One patient suffered postoperatively from upper arm claudication, which was treated by carotidosubclavian bypass. We conclude that the endoluminal technique can be used successfully in the acute repair of aortic trauma and its consequences. Midterm results are satisfactory, with a low incidence of neurologic complications.