Renal artery side branches patency protection during endovascular exclusion of giant renal artery aneurysm with covered stent: Well done is better than well said

Rationale

Endovascular treatment of renal artery aneurysms has offered a viable alternative with a high success rate and low procedure-related morbidity and mortality.

Patient concerns

A 60-year-old man, having a right renal artery aneurysm involving the main vessel with two arteries (supplying the inferior and superior lobes of the kidney) originating from the aneurysm sac as well.

Interventions

A 6 × 28 mm covered stent was inflated in vitro and a side hole was made with a femoral needle in the polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) layer, through which a wire was placed in an outside/inside direction in to be inserted in the inferior pole branch. The other wire was inserted inside the main lumen of the stent (to be inserted in the main artery) and the latter, carefully re-crimped on the balloon. This way, the authors guaranteed continuous access to both arteries during aneurysm exclusion and if needed, a second stent could be advanced at the level of the bifurcation to preserve side branch patency.

Conclusion

Perforating the PTFE of the stent before its introduction into the vessel and keeping a wire into the side branch could be a good strategy to protect any vessel arising from aneurysmal sac that needs to be excluded.<Learning objective: Handling challenging cases of arterial aneurysms percutaneously, especially in high-risk patients.>.