Treatment of extensive aortic aneurysms by a new multiple-stage approach.

A new multiple-stage approach to extensive aneurysmal disease of the aorta is presented. The method is designed to obviate the proximal graft-to-aorta anastomosis in second-stage and third-stage aortic replacement to simplify and facilitate these operative steps. Since 1981 a total of 17 such procedures were performed in seven patients with dissecting and nondissecting aneurysms without deaths or complications related to the method.