Dr. Juan C. Parodi introduced the minimally-invasive endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) to the world and performed the first successful endovascular repair of an abdominal aortic aneurysm on 7 September 1990 in Buenos Aires on a friend of Carlos Menem, the then President of Argentina. The first device was simple, according to Parodi: "“It was a graft I designed with expandable ends, the extra-large Palmaz stent, a Teflon sheath with a valve, a wire, and the valvuplasty balloon, which I took from the cardiologists."" Parodi’s first patient lived for nine years after the procedure and died from pancreatic cancer.