Grandad revved up and ready to go after life-saving op
A pensioner has had a tailor-made jacket fitted inside his body after medical staff at Northwick Park Hospital discovered the ‘Rolls Royce of all aneurysms’ during a routine check-up.
Brian Troop, 78, has lived with the condition for more than a decade with no ill effect until a routine check-up revealed a chronically swollen aorta - the body’s largest artery that carries blood away from the heart - that could have burst at any moment.
The surgical option, which would have involved opening up the pensioner’s entire flank, would have been too traumatic for an elderly patient to survive so the hospital carried out its first endovascular procedure.
A collapsed tubular ‘suit’ of polymer fabric was guided into the artery where it then expanded to support the aorta walls with the use of high tech metal alloy stents made of Nitinol.
Nitinol is a ‘shape memory’ metal that expands and changes shape when subjected to heat, such as the temperature inside the body.
The team also extended the suit to the branches off the aorta which has swollen with age.
Professor Martin Malina, who carried out the four hour procedure, said: “We couldn’t have offered this patient open surgery so he would have carried on living with what is basically a ticking time bomb inside him.
“The patient was out of hospital within a week after this minimally invasive procedure with little ill effect and I understand he is back on his 1,200 cc motorbike and rearing to go already.
“Patients often have no prior symptoms of an aneurysm - a swelling on the artery walls - until it suddenly bursts and can be fatal.
Brian remained nonplussed about his condition, despite having to go for annual and then six monthly check-ups to monitor his condition for more than a decade.
“It is a bit unsettling as it hasn’t physically affected me but I’m very grateful. One of my son’s has just had his first children so it gives me plenty of motivation to stick around for as long as I can now.”