title: Development of a special balloon occlusion device to prevent adverse events in high-risk patients during open aortic surgery.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To prevent clamp injury that may occur during aortic surgery, we aimed to develop a special balloon occlusion (BO) device to lower the thromboembolic risk in patients with severe atherosclerosis during aortic aneurysm repair.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study comprised two test phases: a laboratory-testing series focussing on flexible artificial aortas, and an experimental series conducted on 10 pigs.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The device proved to be effective during the laboratory tests and the experiments on pigs. No complications such as intraoperative balloon rupture, dislocation, or occlusion leaks occurred. No damage to the aortic vessels was observed in further histological examinations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This BO device has the potential to become an alternative to cross-clamping for vascular surgeons in patients with severely atherosclerotic vessels.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, University Hospital Freiburg, Germany. weigang@ch11.ukl.uni-freiburg.de
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Weigang
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Luehr
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: von Samson
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hartert
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Goebel
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wetzig
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Bernard
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Siegenthaler
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Beyersdorf
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001011:Aorta / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D050197:Atherosclerosis / Q000628:therapy; D021721:Balloon Occlusion / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D001807:Blood Vessel Prosthesis; D019917:Blood Vessel Prosthesis Implantation; D006801:Humans; D013552:Swine; D014656:Vascular Surgical Procedures / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods