Mangaluru: A-70-year old patient from Kannur, diagnosed to have abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) was treated by an advanced technique at K S Hegde Hospital, Mangalore last week.

This patient who underwent coronary angioplasty recently, was diagnosed to have an aneurysm which is a large dilatation of the abdominal aorta which was more than three times the normal size. Leaving alone, it would have ruptured any time or would have produced a serious complication. Any intervention was quite a challenge and open surgery was difficult due to comorbid conditions including a poor cardiac function and renal failure.

Being a high risk patient, he was treated by an advanced and minimally invasive technique called as EVAR (Endo Vascular Aortic Repair) where a special graft called stent graft was deployed at the site of aneurysm by catheter technique avoiding open surgery. This will seal the aneurysm and prevent the risk of further expansion and rupture.

Procedure was successfully done by a team of doctors from KS Hegde Hospital, Mangalore. Team of doctors included cardiologists Dr K Subramanyam, Head Dept of cardiology, Dr Usha P Rao and Dr Dilip Johny; Cardiothorasic surgeons Dr M Gopalakrishnan, Head CTVS, Dr Amith Kiran and cardiac Anesthetist Dr Manjunath Kamath. The patient recovered and has been discharged in a stable condition five days after the procedure.

Prof (Dr) Satheesh Kumar Bhandary, Dean, KS Hegde Medical Academy and Major (Dr) Shivakumar Hiremath Medical Supdt KS Hegde Hospital were present.