In June, Sam Tyagi, MD, a vascular surgeon of Lexington, Ky.-based UK HealthCare, treated the first patient in the state with the implantation of a first Gore Excluder thoracoabdominal branch endoprosthesis device to address an aortic aneurysm.
According to a Nov. 18 news release, Dr. Tyagi implanted the device on 75-year-old Bonnie Hutton, who had been living with an aortic aneurysm for some time. The aneurysm had worsened as Ms. Hutton developed a bowel blockage, which would typically be treated through a surgical procedure that would involve opening the patient's chest and abdomen.
"Not every patient is an open operative candidate, so the Tambe device takes a lot of patients who have no option and gives them a minimally invasive one," Dr. Tyagi said in the release. "The mortality rate in the clinical trial for this device was zero."
Since the first procedure in June, the system has completed at least four more implantations of the Tambe device.