Endovascular repair of a ruptured descending thoracic aortic aneurysm.

Endovascular aneurysm repair has considerable potential advantages over the surgical approach as a treatment for thoracic aortic rupture, in part because open surgical repair of ruptured thoracic aortic aneurysms is associated with high mortality and morbidity rates. We describe the successful endovascular deployment of stent-grafts to repair a contained rupture of a descending thoracic aortic aneurysm in an 86-year-old man whose comorbidities prohibited surgery. Two months after the procedure, magnetic resonance angiography showed a patent stent-graft, a patent left subclavian artery, and complete exclusion of the aneurysm.