Ravikumar Veeraswamy, M.D., Director of the Division of Vascular Surgery at the MUSC Health Heart and Vascular Center, discusses thoracic endograft, a minimally invasive approach for repairing a thoracic aortic aneurysm, using surgical footage and imaging to illustrate.

Thoracic aneurysms occur when the walls of the aorta in the chest weaken and bulge, enabling blood to accumulate.  If left untreated, they can rupture, causing massive blood loss and often death. A thoracic endograft is a “sleeve” comprising a metal cylinder and a fabric covering that can be inserted endoscopically into the thoracic aorta to support it and help prevent rupture. This sleeve inside the artery enables blood to flow freely without putting additional pressure on the weakened walls of the aneurysm.