According to information on the site of the Society of Cardiovascular
& Interventional Radiology, stent-graft repair is used mainly for
abdominal aortic aneurysm. Interventional radiology treatments are
also being used for cerebral (brain) aneurysm. However, recent
research shows that stent-graft treatment may also be appropriate for
some patients with thoracic aneurysm, which at the moment is mostly
treated by surgery. You might be interested in reading the information
provided more fully. The site also includes a search feature to find
an interventional radiologist in your area who specializes in aneurysm
repair, with whom to discuss the matter further. BTW, if you are
following the presentation using the "next" links, you will find that
the "real stories" page is still under construction. However, the
"doctor finder" on the next page is functional.
http://www.scvir.org/patient/aaa/index.htm
An illustrated description of "endovascular coiling", an
interventional radiology treatment for cerebral aneurysm, is available
at http://www.bafound.org/endovascular.htm on the web site of the
Brain Aneurysm Foundation
The FDA Talk Paper "FDA APPROVES TWO NEW DEVICES FOR ANEURYSM REPAIR"
of September 28, 1999 is available at
http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/ANSWERS/ANS00978.html It briefly
summarises some studies on the safety and efficacy of the devices (the
Ancure Tube and Bifurcated Endovascular Grafting Systems, made by
Guidant EndoVascular Technologies, Inc., of Menlo Park, Calif., and
the AneuRx (Bifurcated) Stent Graft System, made by Medtronic AVE, of
Santa Rosa, Calif.).
I obtained these links from the MedlinePlus web site at the National
Library of Medicine. MedlinePlus is always my first stop for patient
information, because it contains current information from reliable
sources. The site also has links to other sources of information
about the symptoms, cause, diagnosis and treatment of aneurysm that
might be of interest to you:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/aneurysms.html
Going into the Medline database of medical journal literature, also on
the NLM site (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed
) I found a review of stent-graft repair was published in 2001 in the
Journal of Interventional Cardiology (Vol. 14, August issue (no 4)
pp. 475-481): Endovascular stent-grafts for the repair of infrarenal
abdominal aortic aneurysms: a brief review. by Arko FR, Newman C,
Fogarty TJ.of the Division of Vascular Surgery, Stanford University
Medical Center, 300 Pasteur Dr., H3600, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. The
authors call this "the most exciting topic in vascular surgery today"
and estimate that about half of all abdominal and thoracic aneurysms
will be repaired in this way in the future. However, they also raise
a cautionary note: "Despite the enthusiasm for this technology, there
are unanswered questions like the long-term fate of the device,
management of endoleaks, and the ability to protect the patient from
subsequent rupture." The summary of this paper is available at
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12053503&dopt=Abstract
A paper reporting an FDA workshop "Preclinical testing for aortic
endovascular grafts: results of a Food and Drug Administration
workshop." by Abel DB, Beebe HG, Dedashtian MM, Morton MC, Moynahan M,
Smith LJ, Weinberg SL. of the Center for Devices and Radiological
Health, Food and Drug Administration, 9200 Corporate Blvd., Rockville,
MD 20880, USA. and published in the Journal of Vascular Surgery in May
2002 (Vol. 35 (no 5), pp. 1022-1028 mentions that various types of
problems have been found with the use of these devices. You can
access a report and transcripts of the workshop on the FDA site at
http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/meetings/073101workshop/073101workshop.html
Search strategy: I already knew of Medline Plus and Medline as being
the first sites to use in order to obtain medical information. |
