The Inside-Out Endograft: A Proposed Method to Decrease the Profile of Aortic Stent-Grafts

Abstract

To test the novel hypotheses that (1) endograft profile can be reduced if the components do not overlap in the carrier catheter and (2) the inside-out deployment technique can produce a device with overlapping layers. This study evaluated an endograft in which the graft and stents were connected to each other in an end-to-end fashion without overlap. The endograft was released into a water flow model to become overlapping layers of graft and stents. Then, a Zenith endograft was modified and deployed using this technique, which reduced the Zenith endograft introducer from 20 to 14 French. Inside-out endograft deployment combined with the end-to-end connection of components without overlap may be an effective method to decrease the entry profile of aortic endografts.