Into the era of minimally invasive treatment of abdominal aortic disease
—– Remember the new technology of minimally invasive treatment of abdominal aortic disease in the Department of Vascular Surgery of Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University
When it comes to the most important blood vessel in the human body, it must be the aorta, the main artery of our life. She comes from the heart, protected by the sternum and ribs as well as the lung tissue, and travels all the way down. In order to protect her, God deliberately let her march at the end of the stomach and arranged the hard lumbar vertebrae to stand closely behind her. Guo Jianming, Department of Vascular Surgery, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University
However, there are still times when we have to deal with a sick abdominal aorta. Diseases that occur in the abdominal aorta include two main categories: abdominal aortic aneurysm and abdominal aortic sclerosis occlusion. As the name implies, abdominal aortic aneurysm is a localized dilatation of the aorta, like a blown up balloon, which can rupture at any time. The aorta is the thickest blood vessel in the body in terms of diameter, the pressure is particularly high, and it is connected to the heart, which is beating at all times, so if it ruptures, it will be catastrophic and almost certain death. It is like a “time bomb” stored in the patient’s body that is at risk of rupture and “explosion” at any time.
In contrast to the rapidity and danger of abdominal aortic aneurysm rupture, the enemy of abdominal aortic occlusion is even more cruel. He slowly and continuously torments the patient, causing him to endure the resting pain caused by severe ischemia of the limb every second, day and night, until he is depleted and eventually dies.
Over the years, vascular surgeons facing these two difficult diseases, to save patients, can be described as “since the ancient Huashan a road” – can only take the risk of open abdominal implementation of bypass surgery. Because of its special and complex anatomical location and the vital importance of the aorta, surgery on the abdominal aorta has always been challenging and risky, and is recognized as one of the most difficult surgeries in the surgical community. The surgery is risky, traumatic, and bleeding, and even if the surgery is completed successfully, the patient will face one treacherous hurdle after another in the postoperative care unit, including lung infection, gastrointestinal insufficiency, and hypovolemia. The pain and risk of the patient during the perioperative period can be imagined.
But now, at Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University, the medical team led by Professor Gu Yongquan, a renowned vascular surgeon, has made painful open surgery a thing of the past in the face of abdominal aortic disease, and the advent of the minimally invasive era has become a boon for patients with aortic disease. For aortic aneurysms, they use an intracavitary overlapping stent, which only makes a small incision of 3cm at the root of the thigh to perform the whole operation. A membrane stent is placed inside the aneurysm cavity to isolate the aneurysm cavity, so that normal blood flows to the distal part of the lower extremity through the membrane stent, thus the patient’s artery will not rupture, and the patient’s life is guaranteed and the quality of life is improved. They have treated over 300 cases so far, with a 100% success rate. This treatment enables many patients who are too old and frail to undergo open surgery in the past to be treated effectively, and the patients recover very quickly after surgery and can be discharged from the hospital soon.
For abdominal aortic occlusion, they use laparoscopic techniques, which simply involve making several small 2cm diameter holes in the belly, connecting an external monitor, and using minimally invasive surgical instruments to complete the complex aortic bypass. With these techniques, patients are less traumatized, recovery is significantly faster, and pain is naturally much less. Many laparoscopic patients are exhausted on the 1st postoperative day, which, you know, was something that was not even thought of in the old days when the abdomen was opened to perform aortic bypass. Moreover, the quick recovery reduces a lot of expensive monitoring costs and the overall treatment cost for patients drops a lot.
Currently, Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University has become the first vascular surgery center in China to treat all abdominal aortic surgeries with minimally invasive techniques, which is the beginning of a new era and represents the highest level of treatment in the field of abdominal aortic disease in China and the direction of future treatment. We hope to help more patients reduce their pain and benefit from it, and bring the joy of recovery to more patients.