Aortic Center

The Aortic Center at the University of Tennessee Medical Center offers easy access, diagnosis and treatment for emergent and non-emergent diseases of the aorta. Treatment options include open surgical and endovascular repair of the aorta.

• Acute aortic injuries
• Aortic dissections
• Aortic arch aneurysms
• Abdominal aortic aneurysms
• Ascending aortic aneurysms
• Descending aortic aneurysms
• Iliac and visceral aneurysms
• Pseudoaneurysms of the aorta
• Marfan”s Syndrome

 

The Aortic Center provides unsurpassed expertise and leadership in the care of patients with aortic aneurysmal disease. Program highlights include the following.

• Level 1 Trauma Center
• Auto Acceptance Protocols for Vascular Surgery
• UT LIFESTAR Air Medical Services
• 24/7 coverage in the operating room, endovascular suite and CVICU
• Highly experienced cardiothoracic and vascular surgeons

About Endovascular Repairs With the endovascular treatment alternative, AAA and some thoracic endovascular repairs have shown in studies to have better clinical outcomes and to be as effective as open surgery and shown to cut major complications associated with surgery by half. Other benefits of this treatment included improved patient quality of life, due to reduced hospital stay (from 9.3 days to 3.4 days), and less time spent in recovery (from 3.6 days to 1.4 days to ambulation). 

A stent graft is uniquely designed and constructed to expand to fit and seal varying sizes of aortas, providing a constant outward pressure (without the need for barbs or hooks). The modular design provides physicians the ability to customize the stent graft to fit patients’ individual anatomies (physicians also can modify the length and/or diameter of the implanted graft with extender cuffs). The device is implanted through a delivery catheter into the femoral artery (in the upper thigh) and is then guided through the aorta to the location of the aneurysm using a technique called fluoroscopy.

Once placed, the stent graft expands to fit within the diameter of the aorta.

Potential adverse events associated with stent graft procedures generally are less severe than those associated with open surgery. However, they can include vessel dissection and aneurysm rupture due to improper stent graft placement or migration, infection, bleeding, fever, or numbness in the legs. Patient Referral

Emergent referrals - UT LIFESTAR

Instate: 1.800.792.1033
Out of state: 1.800.854.1033

Non-emergent referrals
865.305.3222

Aortic Center Physicians

University Vascular Surgeons

David Cassada, MD
Michael Freeman, MD
Mitchell Goldman, MD
Oscar Grandas, MD
Scott Stevens, MD

University Heart Surgeons

Raymond Dieter, MD
Jeffrey Everett, MD
Thomas Gaines, MD
John Mack, MD