Staged repair of extensive aortic aneurysms: long-term experience with the elephant trunk technique

This paper reports our experience of a large series of elephant trunk patients accumulated over 12 years.

Extensive aneurysms of the ascending/arch and descending thoracic or thoracoabdominal aorta are significant surgical problems that have potential for great morbidity. We adopted a staged approach known as the elephant trunk procedure in 1991, and we have used it with some modifications since that time.

Between February 1991 and December 2003, we performed 1660 operations for ascending/arch or descending thoracic/thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms. Of these, 321 operations were performed in 218 patients for extensive aneurysms with the elephant trunk technique. We performed 218 ascending/arch repairs and 103 descending thoracic or thoracoabdominal aortic replacements.

In 218 ascending/arch repairs, strokes occurred in 3 of 218 (2.7%) patients, with 1 of 187 (0.5%) in the retrograde cerebral perfusion group and 2 of 31 (6.5%) in the no-retrograde cerebral perfusion group (odds ratio 0.08, P < 0.009). Thirty-day mortality for this group was 19 of 218 (8.7%). Among 199 recovering patients after stage 1 repair, 4 of 199 (2%) died during the 30-day to 6-week interval between stages. After stage 2 repair, 0 of 103 patients experienced immediate neurologic deficit, and 10 of 103 (9.7%) died within 30 days of surgery. Actuarial survival after completed stage 2 was 71% at 5 years.

Despite extreme underlying disease, long-term survival is excellent in patients with extensive aneurysms when both stages of repair are completed. To prevent rupture, the second stage should be completed as soon as the patient's condition permits, preferably within 6 weeks.