Endovascular management of aortic aneurysm with severe neck angulation and/or iliac artery tortuosity using multiple stiff wire technique: a case series

Suitable aortic neck is one of the essential components for thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) and endovascular aortic repair (EVAR). Advanced techniques were developed to adjust and compromise the aneurysm neck angulation but with adding additional devices and complexity to the procedure. We proposed a simple technique to modify severe neck angulation and/or iliac artery tortuosity by using the multiple stiff wire (MSW) technique.

Two femoral accesses were required for the MSW technique. A guidewire with a support catheter was inserted through the right and left femoral arteries and positioned in the abdominal or thoracic aorta. Wire exchanges were done with extra stiff wire in both femoral accesses. It can be considered to add multiple stiff wires to align the torturous neck / iliac artery. Delivery of the stent graft main body can be done via one of the accesses.

Six patients with different aortic pathology were admitted to our hospital. Four patients undergo EVAR procedure and two patients undergo TEVAR procedure. All patients had aortic neck angulation problems with one patient having iliac artery tortuosity. MSW technique was performed on the patients with good results. Follow-up CTA after 3 months revealed a good stent position without stent migration and no endoleak was found in all but one patient.

MSW technique is a simple and effective technique to modify aortic neck/iliac artery angulation in TEVAR or EVAR procedure.