What is an abdominal aortic aneurysm stent and what are the treatments?

What is an abdominal aortic aneurysm stent? How is it treated?

1. We don't know much about abdominal artery aneurysm stents. Vascular stents are placed in the lesion segment on the basis of the formation of the luminal balloon dilatation to support the narrowed and occluded segment of the blood vessel, reduce the elastic contraction and reshaping of the blood vessel, and maintain smooth blood flow in the lumen. Some stents can also prevent restenosis. They are mainly divided into coronary artery stents, cerebrovascular stents, renal artery stents, aortic stents, etc.

2. Due to the lack of nutrient blood vessels, the nutritional supply of the abdominal aorta wall mainly comes from the diffusion of blood in the lumen. The formation of atherosclerotic plaques and thrombi attached to the wall will inevitably lead to nutrient dispersion disorders, causing necrosis of the intima and media of the artery, weakening the wall and making it easy to form aneurysms.

3. After the atherosclerotic plaque falls off, the exposed smooth muscle cells will activate collagenase and degrade a large amount of collagen, which is also one of the factors that lead to the weakness of the aortic wall tunica.

What treatments are available?

Endovascular repair of abdominal aortic aneurysm (EVAR) is a minimally invasive surgical method for abdominal aortic aneurysm. Its surgical indications and contraindications are basically the same as those of open surgery. Its characteristics are small trauma, avoiding the huge trauma and pain caused by traditional surgery, and reducing the incidence and mortality of complications of important organs such as the heart and lungs of patients, especially for some high-risk cases with severe complications, who are not expected to tolerate traditional open surgery or may have severe complications after surgery.

With the maturity and emergence of branch stents and multi-layer stents, "fenestration technology" and "chimney technology", more and more complex abdominal aortic aneurysms that require open surgery tend to be treated endovascularly.

For some patients whose visceral arteries are involved but who are not suitable for endovascular treatment, a hybrid technique combining open surgery and endovascular repair can be used for treatment to reduce surgical trauma and create conditions for minimally invasive endovascular repair.