Bradley Leshnower Leads in High-Risk Aneurysm Treatment
APRIL 2024
Department of Surgery faculty members continue to lead the way in developing new lifesaving technologies. Among the many spaces for research and development is the Endospan TRIOMPHE study, which is the development of an aortic arch stent graft system designed to treat chronic aortic dissections and aneurysms. Endospan is a medical company based in Israel focused on the endovascular aortic repair market. Bradley Leshnower, MD, director of thoracic aortic surgery for Emory Healthcare and professor in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, is helping to lead the study as a co-principal investigator. He is working alongside former Emory vascular surgeon Ross Milner, MD, who is currently serving as chief of vascular surgery at the University of Chicago.
An aortic arch stent graft is implanted in patients when the aneurysm is at risk of bursting or tearing the artery wall. The procedure can be limited or unavailable to patients who may be at higher risk, something that the new stent graft by Endospan is aimed at mitigating.
“This is a novel way to treat patients in a minimally invasive way through endovascular therapy that may allow more high-risk patients who would normally be turned down to be treated for aortic arch disease,” says Dr. Leshnower.
Currently, there are 30 sites in the U.S. that are involved in testing the first-of-it’s-kind stent graft, with approximately 60-70 patients enrolled in the study. Emory University is among the chief sites for the study, with three patients enrolled. In January 2024, Endospan shared results for its first 22 patients during a presentation at the 60th Annual Meeting of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons in San Antonio, Texas.
“We were pleased to see that in this high-risk patient population, the 30-day data for these first 22 patients showed a low mortality rate, no disabling strokes, paraplegia, or renal failure and short ICU and hospital lengths of stay,” said Dr. Leshnower.
The study began in 2020 and results are promising so far. As one of the primary researchers involved with the study since the beginning, Dr. Leshnower believes these developments will provide another tool for surgeons to save lives.
“This device will enable the treatment of many more high-risk patients who are typically turned down because they would require reoperative major open aortic replacement, which many of the patients simply could not tolerate,” says Dr. Leshnower. “This is a way to treat their aneurysms in a minimally invasive way.”