Early experiences with stentgrafts in the treatment of atherothrombotic diseases of the infrarenal aorta

Introduction: Endovascular interventions have become the first-line treatment for peripheral arterial diseases. Athero-thrombotic disorders in the infrarenal aorta are also treated with open surgery, especially if it causes critical stenosis or embolization. The use of traditional stents leads to much more complications in such lesions; however, stentgrafts can provide excellent results.Objectives: We retrospectively analyzed our patients undergoing stengraft implantation due to atherothrombotic diseases in the infrarenal aorta and our early experiences.Methods: We included patients undergoing stentgraft implantation at our department due to symptomatic infrarenal aortic atherothrombotic diseases. We established the suitability for endovascular reconstruction with CT-angiogra-phy. Control CT-angiography was performed 6 weeks after the intervention.Results: 6 patients underwent successful stentgraft implantation between 25 February 2021 and 15 September 2021 at our department due to infrarenal aorta atherothrombotic diseases. 2 patients had critical limb ischaemia and 4 had claudication. Early postoperative complications did not occur. During the follow-up, the patients reported significant walking improvement. Control CT-angiography showed good stentgraft position without stenosis in all patients. Only 1 late postoperative complication (right iliac stent occlusion) occurred. Peripheral thrombolysis was performed for 24 hours; the stent opened and there was no need to perform further interventions.Conclusions: Both our early experiences and international studies have showed that this method is suitable for the treatment of atherothrombotic diseases in the infrarenal aorta. The use of stentgrafts in the treatment of peripheral atherosclerotic diseases is hindered by the high costs of the device, so at present it is subject to individual funding in Hungary.