Unmet Need

Open aortic repairs are complex and lengthy procedures. Globally, approximately 196,000 patients suffer from thoracic aortic diseases, including aortic aneurysms and aortic dissections, which often require emergency medical treatment. Given the complexities of these surgeries, the surgical morbidity and mortality remain high and the clinical results are very technical-dependent. In these open chest procedures, the surgeon replaces the diseased portion of the aorta and other vessels with artificial aortic grafts. These open surgical aortic repairs can take more than 6-8 hours and require putting patient on cardiopulmonary bypass and cooling the patient body temperature down to as low as 20^。C (deep hypothermic circulatory arrest). Prolonged circulatory arrest and hypothermia is associated with a high rate of morbidity and mortality. The current standard of care is to connect the native vessels to the artificial graft with a suturing anastomosis. This fundamental suturing stage of the procedure significantly affects the overall time and success of the surgery. Our aim is to transform and shorten this critical stage by providing a very precise, predictable, and efficient connection.