Balloon embolization of the internal iliac artery before aneurysm endograft deployment

Six patients, ranging from 69 to 81 years of age, underwent iliac artery embolization with use of Detachable Silicon Balloons (DSB) 11-14 days before stent-graft repair of aneurysms. Balloons of 8.8-mm, 9.4-mm, and 9.9-mm sizes were used with 20-30 g of release force. Deployment difficulty was experienced in three cases. Five of six cases were successful, with the iliac artery remaining occluded at the time of endografting; one case required subsequent coil replacement. The average operative time for balloon embolization (75 min ± 28) was shorter than that in 18 cases of coil embolization performed within the same time period (111 min ± 105), but the difference was not significant (P = .21). Postoperatively, one patient (17%) reported buttock claudication after the procedure. Use of the DSB represents an alternative to use of coils for embolization of large and tortuous iliac arteries.