Diagnosis and treatment of a symptomatic primary thoracic aortic tumor: endovascular exclusion to prevent recurrent embolization

Abstract

Intraluminal aortic malignant masses are extremely rare. Clinical symptoms of these tumors include locally occlusive aortic disease, peripheral emboli, or mesenteric emboli. Eventually, general symptoms, such as fatigue, weight loss, or fever, will occur. Nevertheless, the diagnosis is most often made after surgery or autopsy, when histologic data can be examined. Few cases of intraaortic masses treated endovascularly have been reported, most of them related to intraluminal blood clot formation. We present a case of intraaortic malignant tumor formation with distal embolization to the legs, in which the diagnosis of malignant disease was reached after analysis of the material obtained during embolectomy. Endovascular exclusion was performed as a transient treatment to avoid new embolic events.