The Cardiovascular Centre of Hospital da Luz Lisboa performed, last October 17, the first surgery resorting to hybrid prosthesis ("frozen elephant trunk surgery"), in a patient with severe thoracic aorta pathology. Performed by the cardiothoracic surgeon Ricardo Arruda, it was the first operation of the kind made in a private hospital, in Portugal. The patient, a 63-year-old man, presented pathology of aorta (the main artery of the human circulatory system) in two areas: aortic arch dilatation with inferior saccular aneurysm and descending thoracic aorta dilatation. The insertion of F-Vita Open Plus prosthesis allows to treat both pathologies in the same surgical moment. “In the classical approach, we would have to do two separate operations (a sternotomy and a thoracotomy). With this prosthesis, we can treat in the same operation two aortic zones usually ‘incompatible’ in terms of simultaneous surgical approach”, explains Ricardo Arruda. The surgery – that lasted five hours – was done resorting to extracorporeal circulation, deep hypothermia and selective perfusion of supra-aortic trunks. The patient was released from hospital on the 9th day post-surgery and, after the recovery period, will be apt to have a normal life.
