image by: AAAneurysm Outreach

HWN Suggests

The Doctor Game: Prevention easier than cure for abdominal aortic aneurysm

Ask anyone about AAA and they will immediately think of the American Automobile Association. But it also stands for abdominal aortic aneurysm.

Sir William Osler once remarked: “There is no disease more conducive to clinical humility than aneurysm of the aorta.” He could have added that it’s a lethal disease, so prevention is better than cure.

Every year, more than 20,000 North Americans die from a ruptured aorta. Albert Einstein, the physicist who expounded the Theory of Relativity, and Lucille Ball, the TV star that made us laugh, both died of AAA.

So, what causes the aorta, about the size of a garden hose, the largest artery in the body, to rupture?

Getting…

read full article

Featured

 Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms in Women: The Debate Continues

A look at the available data on diagnosing and treating aneurysmal disease in women and how further study could improve screening and treatment guidelines in the female AAA population.

 DeepAAA Uses AI to Look Automatically For Aneurysms

Aneurysms of the abdominal aorta may occur in elderly men. They can burst suddenly, killing more than 90 percent. Yet abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) typically are asymptomatic. Often they are found during imaging exams performed for other reasons. This tendency toward incidental discovery in the context of their prevalence and potential lethality led to the development of DeepAAA, an algorithm that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to search pelvic and abdominal CTs for signs of an abdominal aortic aneurysm.

 The “silent-killer” — know your risks for an abdominal aortic aneurysm

Both ruptured and elective aneurysm repairs can be done with endovascular stent grafting — a minimally invasive, catheter-based procedure — instead of an open procedure, which involves an incision from the chest to the abdomen.

Previously Featured

Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm: Screening

The USPSTF recommends one-time screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) with ultrasonography in men ages 65 to 75 years who have ever smoked.

Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm: Clinical Highlights/Updates

The rupture of an Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (rAAA) is a hallmark emergency medicine presentation with which all practitioners must be intimately familiar. Overall mortality of this condition approaches 90%, but survival with treatment is approximately 40-50%. The classic triad consists of abdominal or flank pain, hypotension and a pulsatile abdominal mass, but only manifests in 50% of cases at best.

AAA-OK: Approach to Imaging of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm

Around 30% of symptomatic AAAs are misattributed to non-vascular causes leading to poor outcomes. The classic triad of abdominal or flank pain, hypotension, and a pulsatile mass occur in only half of patients presenting with a ruptured AAA (rAAA)

Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) Screening Programme - an important milestone

The national implementation of AAA screening, which began in 2009, has been a major public health success story that has prevented many premature deaths.

Abdominal aortic aneurysm: A comprehensive review

The majority of AAAs are asymptomatic and are most often detected as an incidental finding on ultrasonography (USG), abdominal computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging performed for other purposes. Most AAAs are silent until they rupture, although some are identified during evaluation for abdominal symptoms.

Blown Apart: Norm’s Aortic Aneurysm Story

When Upchurch and John A. Kern, MD, opened Norm up to repair the TAAA, they discovered that the aneurysm had, in Norm’s words, “blown apart.” “I should have bled to death in under 3 minutes. But it clotted against my spine.”

Do you have an aortic aneurysm? The case for aortic screening

Nevertheless, the point here is that aortic aneurysms are “silent killers”. As a result, the way to prevent patients from dying from aortic aneurysms is through awareness and screening programs.

How to Guard Against Deadly Aortic Aneurysms

While some risk factors like your age, gender and family history are uncontrollable, there are a number of things you can do to protect yourself from AAA. For starters, if you smoke, you need to quit...

Patients With Aortic Aneurysms More Likely To Die In The UK Than The US

If you have an abdominal aortic aneurysm (a dangerous ballooning out of the main artery sending blood from the heart to your body), you will be more likely to die in Great Britain than in the United States. This was one of the main conclusions reported by researchers in the New England Journal of Medicine, comparing surgery practices between the two countries.

Small Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms: Should We Wait?

The proper management of small abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs), namely those under the threshold of 5.5 cm in diameter, has been under investigation for years. Risk of rupture for this group of AAAs is higher than the rest of the population, and specific factors have been associated with increased growth rate of small AAAs.

When Should an Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Be Treated?

There are two surgical methods of AAA repair: open repair and endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR). Both involve use of a prosthetic graft to prevent the aneurysm from enlarging. The EVAR procedure typically involves entry at the femoral artery, with use of catheters and guide wires to advance a graft to the desired location and anchor it in place. Because this utilizes an endovascular approach, regional rather than general anesthesia can be used.

Resources

AAAneurysm Outreach

AAAneurysm Outreach is the nation’s only 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA, pronounced “Triple A”) and encouraging at-risk individuals to get screened.

Abdominal Aortic

Blog exhibiting multiple links.

Life in the FastLane

Refer all cases to vascular surgery urgently •acute pain is an emergency, even in a stable patient the absence of rupture •assume that any pain in a patient with an AAA is due to an aortic emergency, until proven otherwise

MedicineNet

Abdominal aortic aneurysms often do not cause symptoms. If they do, they may cause deep boring pain in the lower back or flank. Prominent abdominal pulsations may be present.

StatPerals

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a life-threatening condition which requires monitoring or treatment depending upon the size of the aneurysm and/or symptomatology. AAA may be detected incidentally or at the time of rupture. An arterial aneurysm is defined as a permanent localized dilatation of the vessel at least 150% compared to a relative normal adjacent diameter of that artery