[Endovascular treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysm. Preliminary experiences with the Talent endoprosthesis]

The treatment of infra-renal abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) with endovascular stent-graft prostheses is receiving increasing attention as an alternative to major abdominal surgery. Numerous systems are under clinical investigations. We report our preliminary clinical results with the new Talent straight and bifurcated endografts.We treated 5 patients with 3 straight and 2 bifurcated stent-grafts implanted by surgical femoral arteriotomies and placed under fluoroscopic guidance. Control CT and angiographic examinations were performed during an average follow-up of 5.3 months.In the first patient the procedure had to be converted to an open surgical operation to repo sition the distal end of the prosthesis. We had no mortality, or major systemic complication. Three patients had a postimplantation syndrome. All aneurysms showed a decreased size at 3 months, in spite of 3 small persisting leaks.The Talent endograft is safe, and efficacious in the endovascular treatment of AAA. This method requires a good cooperation between the vascular surgeon and the interventional radiologist. Learning curves influence preliminary results.