Aortic remodeling with frozen elephant trunk technique for Stanford type A aortic dissection using Japanese J-graft open stent graft

Fig. 1. a The evaluated false lumen complete thrombosis rate and the ratio of true lumen area at three levels of bronchial carina (1), aortic valve (2), and diaphragm (3). b The false lumen was not enhanced, and therefore defined as “complete thrombosis.” The ratio of true lumen was 55.8%, which was calculated by dividing the traced area of true lumen (red line circle, 750 mm2) by the traced area of the whole aorta (dotted line circle, 1350 mm2). c The false lumen was enhanced, and therefore defined as patent false lumen. The ratio of true lumen was 17.2% (240/1395 mm2)

Fig. 2. The Kaplan-Meier time-related comparison was used for the freedom from additional surgical treatment after initial TAR in the two groups. The p value was not given because of the difference of follow-up duration and short follow-up of FET group, although Log-rank t-test was made

Fig. 3. CT scan of a patient treated with TAR with FET. Preoperative CT image (a–c), postoperative image before discharge from the hospital (d–f), and at 3 months after the operation (g–i) at the level of bronchial carina (a, d, g), aortic valve (b, e, h), and diaphragm (c, f, i), respectively. Note excellent aortic remodeling of downstream aorta after TAR with FET with the complete thrombosis of false lumen and expanded true lumen at each level

Fig. 4. CT scan of a patient treated with TAR without FET before 2015. Preoperative image (a–c), and postoperative image before discharge from the hospital (d–f) at the level of bronchial carina (a, d), aortic valve (b, e), and diaphragm (c, f), respectively. Note that, although the elephant trunk was inserted in the descending aorta, the false lumen is patent and the true lumen expansion is not observed at each level of downstream aorta