Do you know about interventional treatment of aortic coarctation and aortic aneurysm?

Aortic coarctation and aortic aneurysm are common complications in patients with hypertension, of which aortic coarctation has an acute onset and a dangerous prognosis. It can cause severe chest and back pain in the form of cutting or tearing, as well as hemorrhage from rupture of the pseudo-lumen of the aorta, ischemia of the abdominal organs and lower limbs, and the mortality rate in the acute phase can be as high as 70%. Stanford University classifies two types of intimal rupture according to the site and the extent of aortic entrapment: type A means that the entrapment involves only the ascending aorta, regardless of where the intimal rupture is located; type B means that the intimal rupture is located in the descending aorta and does not involve the ascending aorta. Type A has a very poor prognosis, with mortality increasing by 1%-2% per hour within 24 hours of onset in untreated patients, reaching 80% mortality within two weeks. Type B has a relatively good prognosis, with approximately 75% of patients surviving the acute phase with a lower mortality rate, but its 5-year survival rate is only 10-15%, with most patients dying from a ruptured entrapment. Aortic coarctation is staged according to the time of onset. The acute stage is usually within two weeks of onset, and the chronic stage is after two weeks. The primary critical issue in determining a patient with suspected aortic coarctation is to determine whether it is type A or type B. In general, acute surgical procedures are considered for type A (except for type A in which the intimal rupture is in the descending aorta with a retrograde tear to the ascending aorta), whereas type B without specific complications is considered first for medical treatment, followed by interventional or surgical treatment. Interventional treatment of arterial coarctation is performed by closing the endothelial tear with an intra-aortic laminated stent, which allows the aortic coarctation to be cured. Compared to surgical procedures, aortic coarctation with overmolded stent isolation has very significant advantages, going from major to minor surgery, with exact treatment results, few complications, and rapid postoperative recovery. From the anatomical point of view, type B aortic coarctation that does not cause obstruction of important branch vessels after the application of the overlapping stent can be used as an indication for interventional isolation; type A coarctation with an endothelial rupture in the descending aorta and a retrograde tear to the ascending aorta has similar treatment principles as type B. Aortic coarctation that may cause obstruction of important branches after overlapping stent placement can be converted into an indication for interventional treatment through vascular bypass surgery. Our department is the first in China to successfully treat aortic coarctation and abdominal aortic aneurysm with split overlapping stent, which is a major breakthrough in the field of interventional treatment, achieving truly safer, more minimally invasive, more comfortable, wider indications, shorter operation time, faster recovery, and treatment can be completed with only puncture cannulation, avoiding the common one-piece overlapping stent requiring general anesthesia, femoral artery dissection and intraoperative pressure lowering.