[graeham]

Aorta wrapping was actually pioneered in the 1950's, before the graft replacements that the article mentions, but generally the wrapping had a poor result and was abandonded as a technique. (see http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1802172/pdf/anns...)

Generally the trend in vascular surgery these days is to less invasive procedures such as a stent graft.

[mherdeg]

And I think the journal article about this particular process is from 2009 ( http://icvts.oxfordjournals.org/content/10/3/360.short ).

So, hey, points to the BBC for writing an article about something that continues to be interesting instead of something that's "brand new".

[graeham]

I find it fascinating that such an old procedure has been revisited sucessfully (not completely unheard of in medicine either). Perhaps better materials (now a polymer mesh) than used previously (cellophane wrap!).

[10dpd]

Sorry but when you use the term "generally" in a medical context you can be sure the following statement is incorrect. This article is referring to the aortic root which cannot be stinted due to its proximity to the heart.

[graeham]

"Generally" refers to an average trend, not that all examples must follow that trend.

I am not that familiar with Marfan's or this case, so I don't know if this device is useful in this case (http://www.medtronic.com/patients/heart-valve-disease/about-...), but there are stent-grafts that also replace the aortic value so that the stent-graft can be used close to the heart, and you can be sure that medical device companies are looking at ways of using stent-grafts in close proximity to the aortic valve without requiring its replacement.