Gangnam Severance, Korea's First Successful 't-Branch Stent-Graft' Aortic Procedure

Gangnam Severance Hospital Aortic Vascular Center is performing aortic procedures using t-Branch stent-grafts on patients with thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms.

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-ju] The team of Professors Song Seok-won (Cardiovascular Surgery), Lee Kwang-hoon (Radiology), and Nam Sang-beom (Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine) at the Aortic Vascular Center of Gangnam Severance Hospital, Yonsei University, recently announced on the 9th that they successfully performed the country's first complex aortic procedure using the 't-Branch stent-graft' on two patients with thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms.

Both patients had thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms located in the area where visceral arteries are situated. In such cases, treatment with conventional aortic procedures is difficult, leading to consideration of surgical treatment. Surgery typically involves a large incision over 70 cm (thoracotomy and laparotomy) to replace the entire affected aortic segment with an artificial graft.

However, considering that both patients were elderly, over 70 years old, the Aortic Vascular Center at Gangnam Severance Hospital opted for endovascular stent-graft insertion using the t-Branch stent-graft (COOK Medical) instead of thoracotomy and laparotomy surgery.

The procedure of inserting a branched stent-graft requires precise work for each targeted branch vessel (a total of four branch vessels including the celiac artery, superior mesenteric artery, and bilateral renal arteries), demanding several times higher surgical skill compared to other procedures. The Aortic Vascular Center at Gangnam Severance Hospital successfully completed the procedure, which usually takes more than six hours, in just two hours. Both patients recovered quickly after the procedure and were discharged in good health.

Professor Song Seok-won stated, “The t-Branch stent-graft product used for the first time in Korea this time was accessible through the application for rare and urgent medical devices at the Korea Medical Device Safety Information Center under the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. We expect to provide help to high-risk thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm patients, for whom surgical treatment was difficult, through precise t-Branch stent-graft procedures.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.