Development of a special balloon occlusion device to prevent adverse events in high-risk patients during open aortic surgery

OBJECTIVE: To prevent clamp injury that may occur during aortic surgery, we aimed to develop a special balloon occlusion (BO) device to lower the thromboembolic risk in patients with severe atherosclerosis during aortic aneurysm repair. METHODS: The study comprised two test phases: a laboratory-testing series focussing on flexible artificial aortas, and an experimental series conducted on 10 pigs. RESULTS: The device proved to be effective during the laboratory tests and the experiments on pigs. No complications such as intraoperative balloon rupture, dislocation, or occlusion leaks occurred. No damage to the aortic vessels was observed in further histological examinations. CONCLUSIONS: This BO device has the potential to become an alternative to cross-clamping for vascular surgeons in patients with severely atherosclerotic vessels.