Surgical treatment of an aortic arch aneurysm without cardio-pulmonary bypass: endovascular stent-grafting after extra-anatomic bypass of supra-aortic vessels

A 70-year-old patient presented a large saccular aneurysm involving the whole aortic arch. Because of a past history of left thoracotomy and a high co-morbidity profile, we opted for a combined strategy, consisting of an extra-anatomic bypass of the supra-aortic vessels, followed by the endovascular implantation of a covered thoracic stent-graft. Endovascular stent grafting of aortic arch aneurysm, after extra anatomic bypass of supra-aortic vessels, appears as an attractive alternative strategy for high surgical risk patients. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.