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New Technology

An Experimental Study of Type I Endoleak Repair With a Suturing Device

^a Department of General and Cardiothoracic Surgery, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Japan
^b Department of Radiology, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Japan

Accepted for publication February 16, 2009.

^_* Address correspondence to Dr Ohtake, Department of General and Cardiothoracic Surgery, Kanazawa University, Takara-machi 13-1, Kanazawa, 920-8641, Japan (Email: ohtake{at}med.kanazawa-u.ac.jp).

Purpose: An experimental study was done to investigate repair of type I endoleaks in thoracic aortic aneurysms using the T-Fix suturing device (Smith & Nephew Co, Ltd, London, United Kingdom).

Description: A saccular descending aortic aneurysm was made in 5 pigs experimentally. A stent graft was deployed to produce a proximal type I endoleak. Under fluoroscopy, the aorta was punctured with the spinal needle with the T-Fix plastic bar, and the plastic bar was deployed with a push rod. A sufficient number of T-Fix sutures were used until angiography revealed that the type I endoleak had disappeared.

Evaluation: No hemodynamic events occurred during the procedure. An average of 2.5 ± 0.6 T-Fix sutures were required to eliminate the endoleak. The experimental T-Fix repair was performed without any complications. A new method of repairing type I endoleaks for thoracic aortic aneurysms was successfully performed using the T-Fix system.

Conclusions: Although the T-Fix repair currently has some anatomic and clinical limitations, improvement of the device should lead to the increased use of this repair.