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SALT LAKE CITY – Intermountain Healthcare physicians are the first in Utah to perform a new life-saving heart procedure that is designed to be less invasive, safer and have a quicker recovery time.

The procedure, recently performed on Utah resident Antonio Gomez, is called a thoracic branch endoprosthesis. The procedure utilizes new technology that allows surgeons to repair an aortic aneurysm without having to do major open heart surgery.

“Twenty years ago, we would have placed the patient on a heart/lung bypass machine, cooled his whole body down and made an incision through his ribs on the side and replaced the aorta with a graft. It was a big operation and dangerous and it would have set him back a long time,” said Dr. John Doty, a cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon for Intermountain Healthcare.

The new procedure allows repairs to be made without interrupting blood flow to the brain. There are no large incisions — only small punctures — and instead of staying in the hospital several days, many patients are able to return home the following day.

The aorta is the largest blood vessel in the body which carries blood from the heart to the rest of the body through smaller branched arteries. An aortic or abdominal aneurysm is a balloon-like bulge in the aorta that can eventually burst or rupture if it gets large enough. A rupture causes bleeding inside the body and can lead to sudden death.

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“Each patient’s aorta is as unique to them as their personal story,” said Dr. Evan Brownie, vascular surgeon at Intermountain Medical Center and co-director of the Intermountain Healthcare Aortic Center. “We use this device and other surgical techniques to customize a treatment plan specific to the individual, particularly in patients with thoracic or thoracoabdominal aortic pathology.”

After undergoing the procedure, Gomez was released from the hospital the next day. Through a Spanish translator, he said he is grateful for the life-saving technology.

“I feel great right now and I am very grateful to the hospital staff who were able to perform this procedure for me,” he said. “I am thankful God allowed me to see another day and I was able to recover.”

Gomez said he didn’t have any symptoms leading up to his hospitalization other than being hit “full force” with excruciating pain from the chest down. The pain was so intense, it caused him to fall to his knees.

“My wife initially thought when she saw me that I was kidding or playing a prank on her until she realized I was down on my knees and I couldn’t really get up and I was having trouble breathing,” he said.

Nilsa Gomez said she immediately called 911 to get help for her husband, but when paramedics arrived, they told her she couldn’t accompany him to the hospital because she was recovering from COVID-19.

“He was calling me and calling me. He was thinking he was going to die or something like that and for me it was a very difficult moment,” she said.

Nilsa Gomez said her son called from the hospital and said emergency surgery would be performed to repair the aorta in the next 24 hours. Because she had completed quarantine, she rushed to the hospital to be with her husband.

“He was in the ICU and he started being very confused,” she said. “He was not my husband at all.”

The surgery was successful and Antonio Gomez has even returned to work.

“This is one of many advanced procedures that the comprehensive, multidisciplinary aortic center at Intermountain Healthcare offers to our patients,” Brownie said. “We’ve already done several. We’re trying to utilize this device and select patients to offer the full complement of aortic care.

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