Surgical pioneers make it 500

Reg Duffill has undergone angioplasty treatment for an aortic aneurysm. Photo / Richard Robinson

Surgeons who pioneered a new, less invasive procedure have celebrated treating their 500th patient.

The treatment, for a ruptured aneurysm in the aorta, involves an incision in the abdomen instead of the traditional "open" method.

Reg Duffill, 81, was recently treated after the main artery in his abdomen burst.

"I thought the end of the world had come," said the 81-year-old, from Birkenhead in Auckland. "It was this really severe pain at the bottom of my stomach, so bad that I was vomiting."

His wife, Gael, drove him to nearby North Shore Hospital, from where, after a ruptured aneurysm hadbeen diagnosed in his aorta, hewas taken to Auckland City Hospital.

An aneurysm is a bulging area of weakness. They can be several centimetres long.

Mr Duffill was treated by surgeon Andrew Hill, one of the pioneers in New Zealand of a procedure with similarities to the angioplasty treatment of narrowed heart arteries.

A small incision or needle puncture is made into a groin artery and a wire and catheter tube inserted for the procedure to be controlled externally under x-ray guidance.

A polyester tube - a graft to patch the arterial wall from within - and an expanding metal frame or "stent" to seal it in place, are inserted on the catheter. The compressed stent-graft is held in a removable sheath until its placement in the weakened area.

The vascular surgery team at Auckland City Hospital recently performed its 500th abdominal aortic aneurysm reconstruction using the custom-made stent-grafts.

Mr Duffill was walking around within two days of his procedure in late July and spent just four days in Auckland Hospital. He is now feeling "excellent".

"I'm still playing bowls, gardening and walking, no problems at all. I'm really grateful to the surgical team."

Mr Hill and colleague Professor Andrew Holden, an interventional radiologist, are at the forefront of improvements to the stent-grafts and travel internationally to demonstrate their techniques to specialists.

The recovery time and the risk of death are much less than with the open operation, although the latter is still used in nearly half of cases.