Staged procedures for prevention of spinal cord ischemia in endovascular aortic surgery

Background: Spinal cord ischemia with development of paraplegia is the most relevant complication of thoracoabdominal aortic surgery caused by compromising the segmental arteries. To prevent this devastating complication in endovascular aortic surgery, staging procedures have been developed to reinforce collateral blood flood to the spinal cord.

Results: In patients with a medium to high risk for spinal cord ischemia, staged aortic repair is recommended. The classical staged repair is the two-step repair with delayed implantation of the aortic stent grafts. Additionally, more recent methods for short-term salvage of segmental artery perfusion by leaving an endoleak have been developed. Perfusion branches, delayed bridging stents as well as the open branch technique are among these methods. The latest option of staged repair is minimally invasive segmental artery embolization.

Conclusion: Besides the nonsurgical options for monitoring and therapy of spinal cord ischemia, various staging procedures are available, which can be implemented depending on the patient and the aortic anatomy. Evidence that underlines staged repair for endovascular treatment of thoracoabdominal aortic pathologies is mostly based on retrospective studies.