Successful urgent endovascular surgery for symptomatic subclavian artery aneurysmal compression of the trachea.

The purpose of this study is to report the progress of a patient who entered the hospital with symptomatic tracheal compression from a large right subclavian artery aneurysm that was treated with a self-expanding stent graft. The patient was at increased risk for traditional surgery, thus endovascular isolation of the aneurysm was felt to be reasonable. A flexible self-expanding stent graft was placed via a brachial artery cutdown and common femoral access without complication. The symptoms improved and the patient remained asymptomatic at 2-year follow-up with serial CT scan confirmation of aneurysm regression. This unusual case illustrates that endovascular decompression of an aneurysm may have some benefit in alleviating subacute symptoms of extrinsic encroachment into other vital structures. Technical and clinical success was achieved with the stent graft deployment and this seems to be a reasonable alternative to surgery in such patients. Copyright 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.