In this Ted Talk, Tal Golesworthy speaks on his medical breakthrough for fixing his ascending aorta. Due to Marfan’s syndrome, Golesworthy’s aorta began to swell. This condition is known as an aortic aneurysm, also caused by coronary artery disease (CAD), hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and peripheral vascular disease. The aorta lacks tensile strength which poses the risk of rupture and internal hemorrhaging. One of the current treatment options available for aortic aneurysm is aortic surgery, a process in which the problem area is either repaired or replaced with an artificial organ, followed by lifelong anticoagulation therapy. Anticoagulation therapy is used to thin the blood to prevent blood clots, but includes the risk of hemorrhaging and uncontrolled bleeding. Golesworthy and his team of experts created a medical device, a porous textile mesh, that is surgically wrapped around the patient’s aorta to improve its function. The surgery is two hours long compared to the six hours needed for the typical aortic surgery, and does not require any anticoagulation therapy.
