The approach to aortic pathology is nowadays more and more endovascular at both thoracic and abdominal levels. Thoracic stenting has gained worldwide acceptance as first intention to treat pathologies of the descending thoracic aorta. Indications have been extended to aortic arch aneurysms and also to diseases of the ascending aorta. The current devices in use for thoracic endovascular repair (TEVAR) are Medtronic Valiant, Gore TAG, Cook Tx2 and Jotec. The choice of the endograft depends on the thoracic aortic pathology and the anatomical suitability. The technological evolution of the abdominal aortic endografts was very rapid, arriving now at the fourth generation. We report the results of 55 elective cases of endovascular abdominal aortic repair (EVAR) performed in two vascular surgical centers in Romania and Germany. The prostheses used were 16 E-vita Abdominal XT, 12 Excluder, eight Talent, seven PowerLink, three Endurant and nine custom-made, fenestrated or branched from Jotec. The mean follow-up was 18 months with CT-scan, duplex ultrasound and contrast-enhanced ultrasound. The mortality was 2%. EVAR tends to become the gold standard for abdominal aortic aneurysm repair. Technological development of the devices with lowest profile introduction systems will permit to extend the anatomical indications to new frontiers.
Keywords: Endovascular therapy; aortic stent graft; minimally invasive surgery.