title: Endovascular therapy for thoracic and abdominal aortic emergencies.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Emergent situations of both the thoracic and abdominal aortae are serious life-threatening situations. Endovascular stent graft repair offers an alternative to conventional operation for management of aortic diseases. Our aim was to report our experience with endovascular stent graft repair of thoracic and abdominal aortic emergencies.
  
  
  METHODS
  Between April 2004 and March 2007, endovascular stent graft repair was performed in 16 patients (13 males, 3 females; mean age 61.4+/-16.3; range 38 to 86 years). The emergent lesions were in the thoracic aorta in 8 patients and abdominal aorta in the remainder. The deployed stent graft systems were Talent-Medtronic (n=8) and Excluder-Gore (n=8).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Successful deployment of the stent grafts in the appropriate position was achieved in all patients. Hospital mortality occurred in 3 patients. There was no conversion to open surgery. The total number of endoleaks was 3 (18.75%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Endovascular stent graft placement is a feasible and effective approach in the emergency treatment of patients with complicated emergent pathologies of both thoracic and abdominal aortae.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Medicine Faculty of Başkent University, Ankara, Turkey. erdalaslim@yahoo.de
authors.forename: Erdal
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Aslim
authors.forename: Tankut Hakki
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Akay
authors.forename: Süleyman
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ozkan
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Harman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001012:Aorta, Abdominal / Q000601:surgery; D001013:Aorta, Thoracic / Q000601:surgery; D017544:Aortic Aneurysm, Abdominal / Q000601:surgery*; D017545:Aortic Aneurysm, Thoracic / Q000601:surgery*; D001019:Aortic Rupture / Q000601:surgery*; D019917:Blood Vessel Prosthesis Implantation / Q000379:methods* / Q000401:mortality; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015607:Stents; D016896:Treatment Outcome