• Michael E Minor, Nicholas J Morrissey, Richard Peress, Alfio Carroccio, Sharif Ellozy, Gautam Agarwal, Victoria Teodorescu, Larry H Hollier, and Michael L Marin.
• Department of Surgery, Division of Vascular Surgery, The Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY 10029, USA.
• J. Vasc. Surg. 2004 Apr 1;39(4):893-6.

AbstractIatrogenic aortic injuries after spinal surgery have been described, but are rare. We describe a case of a 77-year-old woman who underwent surgical correction of a debilitating spinal deformity at an outside institution. Postoperative thoracic spine radiographs and computed tomography scans revealed a misplaced pedicle screw at T5, which was impinging on the descending thoracic aortic wall. The patient was brought to the operating room, where a thoracic stent graft was deployed under fluoroscopic guidance as the malpositioned screw was manually retracted. The patient had an uneventful postoperative course, and was discharged within 24 hours. This case represents a rare but potentially morbid vascular complication of spinal instrumentation surgery that was successfully treated without the need for thoracotomy.

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