In addition, during that operation, surgeons must put a clamp on the aorta while they remove the part of the artery with the aneurysm and carefully suture the artery back together. Some patients may have a heart attack. They insert thin catheters into the iliac arteries and guide a small plastic or nylon tube, or stent, up through the artery to the aneurysm. Depending on the type of stent, surgeons pop it into place in the area of the aneurysm and lodge it there, so that ordinary blood flow passes through the stent instead of filling up the aneurysm and posing a risk for rupture. The Food and Drug Administration has approved two stents for the procedure Guidant's Ancure Endograft and Medtronic's AneuRxand each has its advantages.
Surgeons choose the device based on characteristics of the aneurysm and the patient.
There are some drawbacks, though, Hood observed. Some blood may leak out of the stent within the artery, for example. Some patients may get stenosis, a narrowing of the artery. And depending on the type of stent used, the stent may kink when the artery contracts over time. But doctors watch patients carefully for such signs, Hood said.