Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is abnormal dilatation of the aorta, carrying a substantial risk of rupture and thereby marked risk of death. Open repair of AAA involves lengthy surgery time, anesthesia, and substantial recovery time. Endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) provides a safer option for patients with advanced age and pulmonary, cardiac, and renal dysfunction. Successful endovascular repair of AAA depends on correct selection of patients (on the basis of their vascular anatomy), choice of the correct endoprosthesis, and familiarity with the technique and procedure-specific complications. The type of aneurysm is defined by its location with respect to the renal arteries, whether it is a true or false aneurysm, and whether the common iliac arteries are involved. Vascular anatomy can be divided more technically into aortic neck, aortic aneurysm, pelvic perfusion, and iliac morphology, with grades of difficulty with respect to EVAR, aortic neck morphology being the most common factor to affect EVAR appropriateness. When choosing among the devices available on the market, one must consider the patient's vascular anatomy and choose between devices that provide suprarenal fixation versus those that provide infrarenal fixation. A successful technique can be divided into preprocedural imaging, ancillary procedures before AAA stent-graft placement, the procedure itself, postprocedural medical therapy, and postprocedural imaging surveillance. Imaging surveillance is important in assessing complications such as limb thrombosis, endoleaks, graft migration, enlargement of the aneurysm sac, and rupture. Last, one must consider the issue of radiation safety with regard to EVAR.

Reports of superior mesenteric artery embolization without the sequela of bowel ischemia or infarction are sparse. We report embolization of the main trunk of the superior mesenteric artery for control of a ruptured aneurysm without subsequent ischemia.

A 42-year-old woman was found to have intravenous leiomyomatosis of the uterus with extension into the inferior vena cava and right atrium. Intravenous leiomyomatosis is a rare neoplastic disease characterized by invasion of venous channels by a benign smooth muscle tumor arising either from the wall of a vessel or from a uterine myoma. Intracardiac extension is often initially misdiagnosed as a right atrial myxoma and may cause death by mechanical obstruction. The diagnosis of intravenous leiomyomatosis should be considered in young women with cardiac symptoms associated with a right atrial mass who also have a pelvic mass or who have previously undergone hysterectomy because of leiomyoma uteri.

The Bird's Nest inferior vena caval filter (Cook, Bloomington, Ind) has been approved for clinical use since 1989. The authors report two cases of cephalic migration of the filter. Both cases of migration occurred in association with a massive thromboembolism after placement of the filter. It appears that a massive thromboembolism can cause this filter to migrate cephalad. The authors suggest that there is potential for nonsurgical management of the migrated filter.

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