Pocatello, ID May 21, 2008 -- Earlier this week, Drs Jacob DeLaRosa and Julio Vasquez, surgeons at Portneuf's Heart and Vascular Center, performed one of the most advanced surgeries for treating Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms (AAA). An aneurysm is a bulge or balloon that forms in the wall of a blood vessel and is most commonly a result of an accumulation of fatty deposits on the vessel wall.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Talent Abdominal Stent Graft System on April 16th, and the device is still in a limited market release. Since the FDA's approval, only nine Talent Abdominal devices have been implanted in the Northwest region - three of them by Drs. DeLaRosa and Vasquez this past week. As an endovascular center of excellence for the treatment of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms, Portneuf Medical Center has quickly become one of the highest Talent implanting hospitals in the Pacific Mountain region.

An aneurysm is a bulge or balloon that forms in the wall of a blood vessel, usually due to an accumulation of fatty deposits on the vessel wall, but may relate to heredity, trauma or other disease that weakens the vessel wall. If an aneurysm forms in the part of the aorta (one of the body's main blood vessels) that extends through the abdomen, it is called an abdominal aortic aneurysm. An abdominal aortic aneurysm is treated if the doctor feels there is a risk that the aneurysm will burst (rupture).

There are two treatment options available: open surgical repair and endovascular stent grafting. With open surgical repair, the surgeon accesses the aneurysm through an incision in the abdomen. Patients typically spend one night in an intensive care unit and remain in the hospital for an additional five to seven days.

With the new Talent Abdominal stent device, the endovascular procedure typically takes one to two hours and the patients are often sent home the following day. A woven polyester tube (graft) covered by a tubular metal web (stent) is inserted into the body through the femoral artery via small groin incisions.

Present in an estimated 1.2 million people and responsible for approximately 15,000 annual deaths in the United States, ruptured AAAs are currently the 10th leading cause of death among U.S. men over age 55, with fewer than 20 percent of people surviving their rupture. Early detection through painless ultrasound screening and minimally invasive treatment with endovascular repair (EVAR) have historically shown a significant improvement in the survival rate for patients of all ages.