Physician Modified Endovascular Grafts

15,000 Americans die suddenly each year from rupture of an aneurysm in the aorta, which is the ninth leading cause of death in men over age 55. Aortic aneurysms are four times more common in men than in women and usually occur in those over age 50. Approximately one percent of men between the ages of 55 and 64 will have a significant aneurysm, and the likelihood increases to about four to six percent of those men over the age of 75. In a recent population-based study of Medicare beneficiaries, 83.2% of patients undergoing endovascular repair of their aortic aneurysm were male. Furthermore, 11.9% of patients were 67 to 69 years of age, 26.8% 70 to 74, 35.7% 75 to 79, 15.8% 80 to 84 and 9.8% \> 85 years of age. Ninety-six percent of patients were White, 3% Black and the rest either Hispanic or "Other". We have reason to believe that the current population of patients in the Pacific Northwest harboring abdominal aortic aneurysms match these statistics. Thus, women and minorities will definitely be under-represented in this study primarily due to the epidemiology of the disease process. Our institution treats a large number of patients with aortic pathology including a large number of patients with symptomatic or ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms. We recently published our results on the implementation of a protocol for managing these patients with endovascular techniques and have been able to reduce the mortality rate in half for the first time in over 30 years. Unfortunately, not all patients presenting with symptomatic or ruptured aortic aneurysms are candidates for endovascular repair. Reasons for exclusion predominantly involve lack of a suitable proximal aortic neck. Solutions to this problem involve multi-branched or "fenestrated" endografts which are being assessed in other clinical trials. However, grafts in these trials require between 6 and 12 weeks to manufacture and deliver to the investigational site. On-site physician modification has also been described but is currently considered outside the Instructions For Use for the intended devices. Our institution's quality improvement department recently performed an objective review of 47 consecutive PMEG cases in patients presenting with asymptomatic, symptomatic or ruptured aortic aneurysms with highly encouraging results. Many patients in our region do not have access to clinical trials involving emerging aortic endovascular therapies, and some have no other option due to urgent presentation or poor open surgical candidacy. For these important reasons, we seek to evaluate the safety and efficacy of PMEG using FDA-approved, off-the-shelf device in order to increase the applicability of these technologies to more patients and thus save more lives. In addition, we seek to evaluate a company manufactured device, the Terumo Aortic Fenestrated TREO Stent Graft System which is very similar to the Custom-Made Fenestrated TREO that has, to date, been extensively evaluated in multiple sites throughout Europe. This device has a lower profile delivery system than other commercially available fenestrated devices and may prove to be safer and more effective than existing commercially available devices.