New minimally-invasive treatment for iliac aneurysm

It was just two weeks ago that Kevin Bottum was faced with a life-threatening health issue.

When he was diagnosed with a 4-centimeter aneurysm in his iliac artery, Bottum assumed he would be undergoing major surgery at Northwest Community Hospital.

Thanks to a new procedure being performed at the hospital in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago - an iliac branched endograft - Bottum only spent one night in the hospital and had just a few small punctures as reminders of the ticking time bomb in his iliac artery.

"The aneurysm was bulging, and if it burst, I could die," says the Buffalo Grove resident.

According to NCH Vascular Surgeon Sapan Desai, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., "About 10 to 20 percent of patients with an iliac aneurysm this size are at risk of having it burst, and close to 90 percent of them will die if that happens. Think of an aneurysm as a balloon that continues to inflate - the pressure grows and the wall gets weaker until it pops."

Until recently, the only options for most people with an iliac aneurysm was major surgery with a two-foot incision, followed by a week in the hospital, or another technique that unnecessarily blocked off a vital artery.

But thanks to a new procedure called an iliac branched endograft, Bottum went home the next day.

By implanting an endograft (fabric-covered tube surrounding a mesh metal cylinder) in the iliac artery, Dr. Desai was able to eliminate blood flow in the aneurysm.

"The only evidence that we were there are two small puncture wounds in his groin area," says Dr. Desai. "The pressure is gone and, for the patient, the risk of rupture has been greatly reduced."

This new, less invasive technology received FDA approval Feb. 29, 2016, and NCH is one of the few hospitals in the Chicago area to perform this procedure.

In less than a week, Bottum was diagnosed, treated and back home puttering in his garden and putting this behind him.

"The procedure itself is phenomenal. There's no pain, and if you saw the incisions - they're only about a half-inch. And I got to go home the next day. That's unbelievable!"

Serving Chicago's Northwest suburbs since 1959, NCH is a comprehensive, patient-centered system of care that serves more than 350,000 outpatients each year and more than 20,000 inpatients treated annually at the 489-bed acute care hospital in Arlington Heights.

NCH has four Immediate Care locations in the Northwest suburbs and operates an NCH Easy Access walk-in clinic in Palatine. For information, visit www.nch.org.