Emergency endovascular treatment of emergent or ruptured aortic aneurysms: A single centre experience

Objective: To report our experience with emergency endovascular repair (eEVAR) in patients with ruptured or acutely symptomatic AA. Methods: From August 1998 to June 2004, 22 high-risk patients (21 men, median age 74 years, range 15-84 years) with ruptured or acutely symptomatic aneurysms underwent eEVAR using Talent endoprostheses. All procedures were performed in the operating theatre by a surgical/radiology team. Indications for repair, co-morbidities and outcomes were recorded with follow-up by US and CT scanning. Results: Of 22 eEVARs, 13 patients had abdominal AA and nine patients had thoracic AA. Nineteen (86.4%) repairs were technically successful, there was one patient with a type I proximal endoleak treated conservatively and two patients died during their inpatient period (myocardial infarction and broncho-pneumonia). On follow-up of the 20 survivors (median 7 months, range 0-48 months), there were three further deaths, and two further endoleaks. The 1-year survival by life-table analysis is 75 ± 9.8% and 13 patients are free from reintervention at last follow-up. Conclusion: eEVAR had encouraging initial results in selected high-risk patients.