Frozen Elephant Trunk with Gore Thoracic Endovascular Graft and
Quadrifurcate Graft
Abstract
The frozen elephant trunk has simplified the surgical treatment of the
entire thoracic aorta; moreover many different technical variants of how
to do it have been described. Our procedure include implantation of a
Gore CTAG graft into the aortic arch followed by a teflon reinforced
suture line that should include the stent graft and the native aorta.
The 4-branched graft is then sutured to the distal stump therefore
creating a custom-made frozen elephant trunk hybrid prosthesis. Three
patients with acute type A aortic dissection and primary entry tear in
the arch were operated with this technique. There were no early or late
deaths, moreover no neurologic events occurred. The purpose of this
article is to introduce an innovative technique for total arch
replacement with the combination of a Gore CTAG stent graft used as a
frozen elephant trunk and a standard 4-branched graft for arch
reconstruction.