Elsie Taylor's 50th wedding anniversary was only two weeks away. She had a dangerously enlarged blood vessel called an aortic aneurysm that threatened to rupture at any time. Thanks to a new procedure and a new product being tested by surgeons at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Elsie had surgery and was back home with her husband, a week before their anniversary. Patients usually go home in three days, Criado said. Conventional surgery, which produces the same results, involves making a long incision in the abdomen and then clamping off and replacing the diseased vessel.
Full recovery takes six to eight weeks.
Elsie Taylor had surgery on a Wednesday and went home to Roseboro, N.C. that Saturday. Generally I feel pretty good. Surgeons have been working on perfecting this complicated surgery for several years. It is produced by Boston Scientific and is only available in this country through the FDA trial. This graft is made out of Dacron with metal on the inside which keeps it open, said Criado.