Doctors at Delhi’s Sir Ganga Ram Hospital managed to save the life of a 71-year-old lady, who was suffering from an aortic aneurysm, by carrying out endovascular interventions on her.

An aortic aneurysm is a balloon-like bulge in the aorta, the large artery that carries blood from the heart through the chest and torso. This condition can occur anywhere in the aorta and may be tube-shaped (fusiform) or round (saccular). .

The patient was brought to the emergency department for uncontrolled blood pressure and kidney failure. She did not know that she was suffering from a life threatening condition called an “aortic aneurysm’.

The hospital said that it was like a ticking bomb in her stomach which could have cost her life.

The Vascular team led by Dr VS Bedi, Chairman, Dr. Ajay Yadav, Vice Chairman, Institute of Vascular and Endovascular Sciences, and other members of the team were asked to assess and consider salvaging the right kidney which was the only partially functioning Kidney since left kidney had already shrunken and was non-functional.

The hospital said that the team evaluating the case had two goals to achieve. First goal was to restore the blood supply of the right kidney by opening the blocked artery with a stent and second goal was to protect the bulge from rupturing and keeping the blood supply going into it to the major arteries arising from dilated part of aorta.

Endovascular intervention was performed through a needle hole in her left arm and right kidney was saved by a stent inside the blood vessel supplying it. Her creatinine levels came down and she started to pass a good amount of urine.

Due to advanced endovascular technique her kidney is saved without any cut. Subsequently she was treated for her major life threatening illness which had to be addressed. She underwent (Fenestrated) Endovascular aortic aneurysm repair which is again a minimally invasive surgery available in very few centers in India, in which the surgeon has to design a stent and create holes at specific locations as per angiography images of patients.

That was a very complex endovascular procedure done successfully to save the life of the patient from risk of rupture of her main blood vessel in the body.

It was a Special Surgeon Modified Endograft in this graft, three holes (fenestrations) were made by the team to insert stents in all three major arteries supplying the kidney, liver spleen and intestine arising from dilated part along with covering the bulge of the aorta.

The dilated part was protected from rupture with special covered graft and all the three major vessels were stented via fenestrations created during graft modification.