Stent-graft placement for urgent treatment or prevention of bleeding

Stent-graft treatment of the patients with ongoing bleeding may be beneficial in specific situations, especially when preservation of blood flow to the distant organs is important.

To present the results of stent-graft placement for urgent treatment or prevention of the bleeding.

Stent-graft placement was performed urgently for the treatment of active bleeding and/or pseudoaneurysm/aneurysm in 17 patients. Diagnoses were based on clinical findings and/or imaging studies. The etiology was previous major surgery and/or percutaneous intervention in 13, malignancy in one, pancreatitis and pseudocyst in one, multitrauma due to traffic accident in one and unknown cause in one patient.

A total of 23 stent-grafts were placed. Angiograms obtained after placement revealed patent stent-graft with no further active extravasation or filling of pseudoaneurysm in 14 patients. Due to persistent bleeding, embolization was performed in two patients. In three patients, the stent-grafts were found to be thrombosed either immediately after placement (n = 1) or at follow-up (n = 2). Stent-grafts were patent in six of nine patients that could be followed (between 3 months and 6 years).

Urgent stent-graft placement may be an alternative to endovascular embolization or surgery. It may be preferred when embolization is technically difficult or impossible and/or when preservation of blood supply to distal organs is essential such as in liver transplant grafts or extremity salvage.