Endovascular treatment of thoracic aortic diseases: Follow-up and complications with multi-detector computed tomography angiography

Eur J Radiol. 2008 Mar;65(3):365-76. doi: 10.1016/j.ejrad.2007.09.022. Epub 2007 Oct 22.

Abstract

Endovascular procedures with placement of stent-graft has become an accepted alternative to traditional open surgery for treatment of descending thoracic aortic aneurysms, ulcers, post-traumatic rupture, or complications of type-B dissection, due to significant reduction in perioperative mortality, rate of complications and length of hospitalization. Moreover, increasing operator experience and continuous advances in stent-graft technology are making treatment of a wider range of cases possible with redefinition of guidelines for endovascular stent-graft. The feasibility of endovascular stent-graft is mainly dependent on anatomic factors which represent the important predictors of the success of this procedure as well as on strictly follow-up in order to obtain early detection and treatment of eventual complications. Multi-detector CT-angiography is a fast, safe, and minimally invasive imaging technique that represents the standard of reference in the follow-up of patients who have undergone endovascular stent-graft, as it is effective and specific in the detection of procedure-correlated complications. The purpose of this article is to give a brief review of those techniques most commonly used for endovascular treatment of thoracic aortic diseases together with a more detailed description of post-procedural complications and their appearance on multi-detector CT-angiography.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Angiography
  • Aorta, Thoracic*
  • Aortic Diseases / diagnostic imaging*
  • Aortic Diseases / surgery*
  • Blood Vessel Prosthesis Implantation*
  • Contrast Media
  • Humans
  • Imaging, Three-Dimensional
  • Postoperative Complications / diagnostic imaging
  • Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted
  • Stents
  • Tomography, X-Ray Computed / methods*

Substances

  • Contrast Media