Open surgical repair for a perigraft leak after endovascular stent-graft emplacement of descending thoracic aneurysm.

Although transluminal stent-graft implantation is less invasive for treating an aneurysm in the thoracic descending aorta, this technique is not always successful. Here, we report two cases of a perigraft leak identified after stent-graft deployment, and complete occlusion of the leak could not be attained by additional stent-graft deployment. Open surgical repair using a stented graft was performed through a median sternotomy without opening the left pleura. This procedure should be considered as one of the less-invasive techniques for treating a perigraft leak after endovascular stent-graft emplacement.