Endovascular fenestration in aortic dissection with acute malperfusion syndrome: immediate and late follow-up

To evaluate the immediate and long-term results of fenestration in aortic dissection with acute malperfusion syndrome.

Between 1999 and 2007, 35 patients (31 men; age, 57 ± 11 years) with aortic dissection (19 with type A and 16 with type B) were treated by fenestration for malperfusion syndrome (27 renal, 27 bowel, and 14 lower limb) due to dynamic compression. Fenestration was performed with 2 rigid guidewires inserted in one 8F sheath (45 cm long). The mean interval between aortic dissection and fenestration was 5 days (28 patients within 3 days and 7 patients between 9 and 41 days).

Fenestration (100% technical success rate) with an additional endovascular procedure (29 peripheral stents and 1 thoracic stent graft) resulted in angiographic success in 97% of the patients. Bowel surgery was performed in 7 patients. Mortality within the first month (12/35) was related to bowel ischemia (n = 5), neurologic complications (n = 3), type A surgery (n = 2), and late treatment (n = 2). At a mean follow-up of 48 ± 30 months, 4 of the remaining 23 patients had died and 2 had withdrawn from the study. The diameter of the aorta, as measured using computed tomography/magnetic resonance imaging, remained stable in 12 of the remaining 17 patients and had increased in 5 (1 with Marfan syndrome and 4 with multiple arterial ectasia).

In emergencies, fenestration saved 69% of the patients with acute malperfusion syndrome in complicated aortic dissection. During the follow-up period, the aortic diameter remained stable in most of the surviving patients.