New Procedure to Repair Aneurysms.

A minimally invasive procedure for repairing abdominal aortic aneurysms gets people back on their feet sooner--and with fewer complications--than traditional open surgery, according to a national, multi-center study led by Christopher Zarins, chief of vascular surgery and Chidester Professor of Surgery at Stanford (Calif.) University School of Medicine. Abdominal aortic aneurysms are enlargements in the lower part of the aorta, the main artery carrying blood away from the heart. They can rupture at any time and cause death.

The new technique uses a stent graft--a Dacron tube inside a collapsed metal-mesh cylinder--that is threaded through the arteries to the site of the aneurysm. The stent graft expands inside the wall of the aorta and serves as a substitute channel to carry blood, bypassing the aneurysm to prevent a rupture.

"It [the new procedure] allows you to repair an abdominal aortic aneurysm through a small groin operation, as opposed to a major abdominal operation," Zarins explains. "People were up sooner, eating, walking, and going home, and the complication rate is less. We had some patients who went home the morning after the procedure."

Abdominal aortic aneurysms are the nation's 13th leading cause of death...