Dr. Shimshak performed the surgery with Dr. Peter Podore, director of vascular surgery at Christ Hospital. An aneurysm, a weak part of a blood vessel, can bulge and burst, causing internal bleeding. Abdominal aortic aneurysms, which occur in the body's biggest blood vessel leading from the heart, are the most common type of aneurysm. Doctors diagnose about 200,000 cases a year nationwide, according to Medtronic, the company that makes the AneuRx device. About 15,000 Americans die each year from burst abdominal aortic aneurysms.
Recovery often requires a week in the hospital plus several weeks of home recuperation.
But now, doctors can do the work from the inside, using the AneuRx stent graft, made by Medtronic Inc. of Minneapolis. The device was introduced in Europe in 1997. Then, after clinical trials in the United States, it won approval in September from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Guidant Corp. A third device made by Boston Scientific remains in clinical trials in the United Sates, Dr. Shimshak said. The AneuRx stent graft is an expandable nickel-titanium mesh tube covered with polyester.