What causes a AAA?

The condition is fairly common in older adults and is more common in men than in women. Risk factors for developing it are age, smoking, family history of AAA, atherosclerotic disease, and high blood pressure.

What are the Symptoms of AAA?

Most patients diagnosed with AAA have no symptoms. However, for those patients that do have symptoms, the most common one is pain in the abdomen, back, or chest. The pain may range from mild to severe. In some patients, the pain in their abdomen spreads to their back. Others feel the aneurysm as a throbbing mass in their abdomen.

The AAA is often found during an examination for an unrelated health condition. During the examination, the patient may feel tenderness, back pain, abdomen pain, or pain in their legs. Your doctor may feel a bulge or throb- bing in your abdomen.

If you have been diagnosed with a AAA and you develop back pain, abdomen pain, muscle pain, weakness in the legs, or dizziness, call your doctor immediately, or go to the closest emergency room.  

Is this a serious condition?

In the early stages, when the AAA is small in size, it may not be an immediate health risk to you. However, your doctor will want to check your condition on a regular basis to see if your AAA is growing.

In later stages, if the AAA continues to grow, it needs to be treated in order to prevent it from bursting and caus- ing serious internal bleeding. The risk of an aneurysm bursting increases as the aneurysm grows in size, and with high blood pressure. Aneurysms that burst arevery serious and may be fatal.

Medical Management

If your aneurysm is small, your doctor may only recom- mend regular examinations to monitor the size of the aneurysm. A large aneurysm, or one that is rapidly grow- ing, poses a risk of bursting and requires treatment. Thereare two treatment options available to your doctor: Open Surgical Repairor Endovascular Repair. Open Surgical Repair

In Open Surgical Repair, the doctor makes a cut in the abdomen or side of the patient and repairs the section of the aorta that has an aneurysm. The repair is done by replacing the aneurysm section with a fabric tube called agraft. The graft is sewn into place with sutures and acts as a replacement blood vessel. This procedure requires stopping of the flow of blood through the aorta while the graft is being sewn in place. The surgery is performed under general anesthesia and takes about 2 to 4 hours to complete. Patients will usually stay overnight in the inten- sive care unit and another 5 to 7 days in the hospital. Depending on how your body heals, the overall recovery time may take up to 3 months or longer.

Open Surgical Repairisawell known surgical procedure that works. However, it involves major surgery and is not well tolerated by all patients, depending on their overall health conditions. Additionally,Open Surgical Repair has along recovery period, and with a risk that you may not return to full function after the recovery period. As with any medical procedure, Open Surgical Repair has a risk for complications. Ask your doctor about the risks of Open Surgical Repair as they relate to your own health conditions.

Endovascular Repair

Endovascular Repair is less invasive than Open Surgical Repair in that it requires a smaller cut. Instead of making alarge cut in the abdomen, the doctor makes a small cut in one groin and a small puncture in the other groin to get to the femoral arteries(blood vessels).

An endovascular stent graft is inserted through the small cut in the leg and placed inside the aneurysm in the aorta. Blood then flows through the endovascular stent graft rather than the weakened aneurysm part of the aorta. The endovascular stent graft (The Powerlink stent graft) remains inside the aorta permanently. The Endovascular Repair proceduremay be done under local anesthesia and takes about 1 to 3 hours to complete. Patients will usually have a hospital stay of only a few days. Depending on how your body heals, the overall recovery time is usually 4 to 6 weeks.

Not every patient is a candidate for Endovascular Repair. As with any surgical procedure, Endovascular Repair has arisk of complications. Open Surgical Repair and Endovascular Repair both have advantages and disad- vantages based upon each patient’s health condition and needs. Ask your doctor about the possible risks of Endovascular Repair as they relate to your own health conditions.

What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of the Different Treatment Options? 

For more information or to download a free brochure regarding this subjecgt please visit www.endoloxic.com.