The aorta is a large blood vessel that carries blood from your heart through your abdomen, and when the lower part of this blood vessel becomes enlarged, it's referred to as an abdominal aortic aneurysm. This condition is potentially life-threatening, as the aneurysm can rupture and cause internal bleeding. Here's an overview of the causes, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment approach for an abdominal aortic aneurysm.
Causes And Symptoms
It's not always possible to identify the cause of an abdominal aortic aneurysm, but the condition can occur as a result of trauma or high blood pressure, which can weaken the walls of the aorta. Having atherosclerosis, which is a vascular condition characterised by a build-up of fatty deposits in your blood vessels, can also damage the walls of the aorta.
Symptoms of an abdominal aortic aneurysm include a deep pain in the centre or side of your abdomen that's constant and a pulsing sensation at the front of your abdomen. You may also experience lower back pain, which can be intermittent or constant. If the aneurysm ruptures, you will develop a high fever, racing pulse and sudden low blood pressure, and you may pass blood. A ruptured aneurysm is a medical emergency.
Diagnosis And Treatment Approach
Your doctor will diagnose an abdominal aortic aneurysm by taking details of your symptoms and arranging diagnostic imaging, such as an ultrasound, which will be used to confirm the size of the aneurysm and whether there's any damage to surrounding tissue.
An abdominal aortic aneurysm requires surgical repair to provide relief from symptoms and to prevent the risk of it rupturing in the future. You will either undergo open abdominal surgery or endovascular repair surgery. Open abdominal surgery involves a large abdominal incision, and your surgeon will remove the affected area of the aorta and attach a synthetic graft in its place. Endovascular repair surgery is less invasive and doesn't require the several weeks of recovery time that open abdominal surgery does. The procedure still involves repairing the damaged section of the aorta with a synthetic graft, but this is done by attaching the graft to a thin, flexible tube that's inserted into your artery through small, keyhole incision.
If you have any symptoms associated with an abdominal aortic aneurysm, schedule an urgent appointment with your doctor. If you have any symptoms associated with a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm, you should call an ambulance, as urgent medical care will be required to save your life.
Share28 May 2020
Hello, my name is Catherine and this is my blog all about health and medical topics. I was inspired to start this blog by my husband who works in a hospital. He isn't a doctor, he works in a lab testing blood samples. However, he is extremely interested in medicine. When his grandma got sick, he quickly established what might be wrong and got her all the help she needed. Sometimes is the evening, we sit and read textbooks and talk about medicine. It sounds insane but we both really like it. I decided to start this blog to show off some of what I have learnt.