Skip to main content

Organ Arteries (Visceral Vessels)

The organ arte­ries (vis­ce­ral ves­sels) sup­p­ly the inter­nal organs, e.g. the kid­neys, the intesti­ne and the liver, with oxy­gen-rich blood. Various risk fac­tors, such as smo­king, ele­va­ted blood lipid levels or her­edi­ta­ry pre­dis­po­si­ti­on, can lead to the nar­ro­wing (steno­sis) or widening (aneu­rysms) of the organ arte­ries. With an increased nar­ro­wing (steno­sis) of the ves­sels, the­re is a risk that the affec­ted organs can no lon­ger be ade­qua­te­ly sup­pli­ed with blood. What then fol­lows ran­ges from organ dama­ge up to the loss of the organ with fatal con­se­quen­ces. The rare enlar­ge­ment (aneu­rysms) of organ arte­ries can lead to the burs­t­ing of the affec­ted ves­sel with the risk of life-threa­tening inter­nal bleeding.

The dia­gno­sis of organ artery dise­a­se is car­ri­ed out pri­ma­ri­ly through ultra­sound or com­pu­te­ri­zed tomo­gra­phy, eit­her due to par­ti­cu­lar sym­ptoms or, as often in the case of vaso­dila­ti­ons, inci­den­tal findings.

  • Endo­vas­cu­lar Therapy

The inser­ti­on of tubu­lar wire mes­hes (stents) into the ves­sels can, in the majo­ri­ty of cases, impro­ve per­fu­si­on in the organ arte­ries and thus help pre­ser­ve the organ (e.g. kid­ney). This is usual­ly done via a small access in the gro­in or on the arm and is not a bur­den for the patient.

  • Cen­tral Bypass Surgery

If an endo­vas­cu­lar pro­ce­du­re is not pos­si­ble for tech­ni­cal or ana­to­mic­al reasons, the­re is the opti­on of sur­gi­cal tre­at­ment by means of a vas­cu­lar bypass. This requi­res an incis­i­on in the area of ​​the abdo­men. Fre­quent­ly, sur­gi­cal the­ra­py is also used when pre­vious endo­vas­cu­lar pro­ce­du­res have not been suc­cessful in the long term.
The decis­i­on as to which form of the­ra­py is cho­sen in a par­ti­cu­lar case depends on various fac­tors, e.g. secon­da­ry ill­nesses, age and, if rele­vant, pre­vious ope­ra­ti­ons in the affec­ted region.