Paul Lajos, MD, Associate Chief of Vascular Surgery at Mount Sinai Queens, and a member of the Division of Vascular Surgery at the Mount Sinai Health System, performed the first-ever percutaneous Thoracic Endovascular Aortic Repair (TEVAR) procedure at The Mount Sinai Hospital in August, on a patient who was experiencing an aortic wall hematoma and ulcer.
Boodram Jadunath, 72, was visiting New York City from London to spend time with his daughter when he began experiencing severe chest and back pain. At The Mount Sinai Hospital, a scan revealed that he needed emergency aortic surgery.
Dr. Lajos, who is also an Assistant Professor of Surgery and Radiology at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, determined that Mr. Jadunath would be a good candidate for the percutaneous TEVAR procedure, an innovative technique in which the surgeon, guided by an X-ray, inserts a thin catheter through the patient’s groin to reach the aorta, where a stent-graft is then delivered to the area and then closed through sutures through the skin.
The percutaneous TEVAR procedure enables patients to recover more quickly with less blood loss and fewer wound complications than with the traditional technique of treating damaged aortic blood vessels by opening the chest and operating directly on the aorta. This necessitates large open chest incisions and possible cardiopulmonary bypass.
According to Dr. Lajos, the procedure to help Mr. Jadunath was completed in about one hour. Mr. Jadunath was able to sit up immediately afterward and walk the following morning.
“It was the first time ever that I had a doctor sit down with me for over half an hour,” says Mr. Jadunath, who had four coronary stents placed prior to his treatment at Mount Sinai. “Dr. Lajos made me much more relieved. I felt stronger when I left the hospital.”
Dr. Lajos says his work was inspired by two trailblazers at Mount Sinai: Michael L. Marin, MD, FACS, The Jacobson Professor of Surgery and Chairman, Department of Surgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who in 1992 became the first vascular surgeon in the United States to perform an endovascular repair of an abdominal aortic aneurysm; and Peter Faries, MD, The Franz W. Sichel Professor of Surgery, Chief of the Division of Vascular Surgery, and Professor of Radiology, who in 2012, was the first surgeon at Mount Sinai to perform percutaneous treatment of an abdominal aortic aneurysm. Dr. Marin also serves as Surgeon-in-Chief of the Mount Sinai Health System.
“With the pioneering work of Dr. Marin and Dr. Faries in endovascular aortic repair, we felt the need to take our work to the next minimally invasive level,” says Dr. Lajos.