Initial Surgical Experience of a Novel Frozen Elephant Trunk Without Distal Stent for Acute Type A Aortic Dissection.

PURPOSE: A novel frozen elephant trunk (FET) has a reduced radial force in the stent graft and a 6-cm stent graft part with a 2-cm non-stent graft part. This study aimed to evaluate the novel FET for acute type A aortic dissection.

DESCRIPTION: We collected data of 5 patients who underwent total arch replacement with the novel FET for acute type A aortic dissection. Aortic diameter in the descending aorta was measured at the stent graft part, non-stent graft part, and aortic valve level on computed tomography angiography. The true lumen ratio was calculated by dividing the true lumen diameter by the aortic diameter.

EVALUATION: Five patients with a mean age of 61.6 ± 10.1 years underwent total arch replacement and FET implantation. Spinal cord injury was not recorded. Postoperative and 6-month true lumen ratios at the stent graft part and aortic valve level significantly increased compared with those preoperatively. Aortic diameter at 6 months showed significant shrinkage at those levels. No evidence of distal stent graft-induced new entry was observed.

CONCLUSIONS

Initial experience with the novel FET implantation demonstrated favorable aortic remodeling and its safe use.