The ‘island technique’ for aortic arch and FET surgery: an ‘evergreen’ or a ‘rekindled flame’?

Literally, ‘evergreen’ means … evergreen. An ‘evergreen’ lasts over time, and never loses its usefulness. It is ‘timeless’; hence, it is not affected by changes in society, nor is it influenced by the fashion of the moment. On the other hand, sometimes in life a passion or a habit might fade or end for no specific reason … so, little by little, things change, and an endless passion may become a love gone wrong … What happens though, when one realizes that what was left behind was the one, true, absolute reality one desired? The past from which we had separated could very well return strong, determined to be lived with greater intensity than before: a ‘rekindled flame’. This experience can apply to several areas and also to the field of surgery. This analogy may undoubtedly be applied to the ‘island technique’ (IT) used for the reimplantation of supra-aortic trunks (SAT) in aortic arch and Frozen Elephant Trunk (FET) surgery, a technique that over recent years has been mostly abandoned in favour of single reimplantation, but that Dohle et al., with their experience, have ‘rekindled’