INTRODUCTION
The Frozen Elephant Trunk (FET) procedure has become established as a
proven and attractive option to treat aortic disease when the arch and
the thoracic aorta are involved to facilitate the conventional two-stage
access.1 In acute and chronic aortic dissection, the
use of FET can help to expand and stabilize the true lumen and cover
eventual supplementary tears but the perceived technical complexity of
the operation may be restricting its adoption, especially in the acute
setting.2–4 Undoubtedly, the constant development of
new branched prostheses, which increases the surgeons’ armamentarium in
the treatment of complex aortic arch pathology, plays an important role
in reducing the risk of procedural failure.5 At
present, there is little evidence weighing the burden of replacing the
aortic arch as an additional procedure during elective or emergency
proximal aortic repair, thus making comparison with patients undergoing
secondary total arch replacement difficult.6 The aim
of this study was to evaluate safety and short term outcomes after FET
with the ThoraflexTM Hybrid (Terumo Aortic, Inchinnan,
Scotland, UK) prosthesis in aortic arch reconstruction both in emergency
and elective setting.