First physician modified endograft performed at Southern Hills Hospital

One of Southern Hills’ newest Vascular Surgeons, Dr. Amir Ghaffarian, joined the hospital from University of Washington, where he learned how to perform Physician Modified Endografts (PMEG). This is a big deal as only six of these procedures had ever been performed in the state of Nevada.

A few weeks back, an elderly woman came to our hospital with a large abdominal aortic aneurysm that was causing excruciating pain. The aneurysm was at high risk for rupturing and causing immediate death. The aneurysm was also incredibly complex as it involved the arteries going to her kidneys and intestines. Because of this, she was not a candidate for traditional stent-graft placement, and she was too frail to survive open aortic surgery. This patient would normally be transferred out of Las Vegas to receive higher-level vascular surgery care. Dr. Ghaffarian gathered all the supplies and devices he used at the University of Washington, and with the help of the OR staff and Cath Lab, they performed our first PMEG to treat this aneurysm minimally invasively. They completed the procedure in 1.5 hours with only two tiny groin incisions! This procedure typically takes other surgeons 6-7 hours on average.

Thanks to our team and Dr. Ghaffarian, we have successfully completed three of these surgeries so far and are making history in Nevada.