New device helps Twin Cities patients with complex aneurysms

[KSTP TV, April 24, 2015] The FDA has approved a new medical device that's giving patients who have complex aneurysms a dramatically better chance of surviving.

Dr. Jesse Manunga, vascular surgeon at Minneapolis Heart Institute® at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, said abdominal aortic aneurysms are difficult to treat. Many times the risks are too great to open up the patient. The patients often have multiple medical conditions, which increase the risk of the patient dying on the operating table.

Before a new device was implemented at Abbott Northwestern, a day-of surgery with the specialized stent was not possible. Manunga would have to wait up to six weeks for a custom-made stent, designed by him, to be manufactured and shipped from an Australian company.