Ischaemic preconditioning of the spinal cord to prevent spinal cord ischaemia during endovascular repair of thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm: first clinical experience

Aims: The purpose of our study was to report our experience with minimally invasive segmental artery coil embolisation (MISACE) to prevent spinal cord ischaemia (SCI) after endovascular repair (ER) of thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm (TAAA). Methods and results: A cohort of 57 patients with TAAAs was treated by MISACE followed by ER between October 2014 and December 2017. The TAAA Crawford classification was: type I, n=5; type IL n=12; type III, n=27; type IV, n=13. The average maximum aortic diameter was 62.718.8 mm. Patients had a median of 5 coiled SAs (range: 1-19). MISACE was completed in one (n=22), two (n=24), three (n=7), four (n=3) or five (n=1) sessions. The maximum number of coiled SAs per session was six. After completion of MISACE, 77.7% of direct segmental arterial flow was occluded. After a mean of 83162 days, 55 of the patients received total ER of their TAAA. At 30 days after ER, no patient developed SCI and three patients had died. Conclusions: MISACE to precondition the paraspinous collateral network prior to endovascular repair of thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm is clinically feasible. The safety profile is promising and there is good reason to explore this new staging strategy further.