SMC ‘tops world’ in abdominal aortic surgery on Marfan syndrome patients < Hospital < 기사본문 - KBR

Samsung Medical Center (SMC) said Tuesday that the hospital has conducted the largest number of abdominal aortic aneurysm repairs on Marfan syndrome (MFS) patients in the world.

MFS is a congenital connective tissue disease that affects the cardiovascular system. It can cause fatal complications like ruptured blood vessels due to weakness in vessels and aneurysms.

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) cases in MFS patients are rare, and doctors conduct emergency surgeries after blood vessels tear or burst. However, even medicals professionals at large hospitals have little experience with these operations. Besides, blood vessels are easily torn during the operation, making the operation even more difficult with frequent recurrences.

Professor Park Yang-jin of the Department of Vascular Surgery at SMC has conducted the most abdominal aortic aneurysm repairs on Marfan syndrome (MFS) patients worldwide.

AAA cases in MFS patients are different from the general AAAs. As structural problems in blood vessels mainly cause the former, stent grafting is forbidden, and the only solution is open surgical repair (OSR).

The research team of Professor Park Yang-jin of the Department of Vascular Surgery at SMC has lots of experience in these operations by running a clinic for MFS patients, announcing the outcomes of OSR performed on these patients so far.

The team compared 28 MFS patients who went through OSR for AAAs with 426 patients without MFS but went through OSR for AAAs from Sept. 2003 to June 2020 at SMC. In both groups, there were no cases of stoma rupture or bleeding that needed an additional OSR. In addition, the mortality rate after 30 days of OSR was 0 percent for patients with MFS and 0.9 percent for patients without MFS, remaining at very low levels. In particular, the survival rate after 10 years for patients with MFS was 95.2 percent, higher than the 72 percent of general patients over 70, confirming that full recovery after OSR could make patients lead normal lives.

The presentation has reaffirmed that SMC has conducted the most OSRs on MFS patients with AAAs.

It has become possible due to systematic management of MFS patients through clinic operation, taking adequate measures by, for instance, providing OSR before the development of fatal complications like rupture of blood vessels. Also, SMC had an abundance of experience performing more than a thousand cases of OSR on MFS patients with AAAs from the start of hospital operation.

“The results of surgical repairs showed that SMC’s expertise in operation skills and customized services on different patients like those with MFS,” Professor Park said. “We will continue to research and provide personalized treatment for patients by taking into account their different conditions.”

The results of the research were published in the latest issue of the Journal of Vascular Surgery.