Approximately 15,000 people die each year of a ruptured abdominal aneurysm, and 200,000 new cases are diagnosed each year.
Living with an abdominal aortic aneurysm is like teetering on the edge of a cliff, sometimes for years, waiting as the body’s largest artery weakens, stretches, and finally bulges to the point of bursting.
For patients who also have other serious medical conditions, standard abdominal surgery is often too risky, leaving few, if any, treatment options.
Emory vascular surgeon Joseph Ricotta is one of a handful of surgeons across the United States who repair this critical condition using a custom-made fenestrated and branched aortic endograft (FEN) inserted into the aorta through arteries in the groin. Ricotta fashions each graft himself based on the patient’s CT and PET scans. The endograft is a tube of fabric and metal that functions as a sleeve inside the aorta that excludes the aneurysm from blood flow.