Aortic Aneurysm

What Is An Aortic Aneurysm?

An aortic aneurysm is not something that you ever want to have to worry about and the scary thing is that many people don’t know they have them until it is too late. The concept of an aneurysm is pretty simple, it is simply a bulge in a blood vessel, in this case the aorta. Your aorta is one of the most important parts of your whole body because this is the vessel that carries the blood away from the heart and to the rest of your bodyÕs organs and tissues. The danger in these aneurysms, in any aneurysm is that they will burst. In many cases a burst aneurysm means death.

Causes Of Aortic Aneurysm

You would probably expect an aortic aneurysm to happen in your chest and some do in fact occur there. However, most of these types of aneurysms occur in the abdomen. These are called abdominal aneurysms, and the ones that do happen in the chest cavity are considered to be thoracic aneurysms.

There are a couple of different reasons why a person would develop an aortic aneurysm such as plaque in the aorta or even heart disease such as Marfan Syndrome. This aneurysm does cause some pain to the patient, though it is common for someone with a small aneurysm to not feel it at all.

Symptoms Of Aortic Aneurysm

There are several telling symptoms of aortic aneurysm. For example you could feel a pulsating pain in your abdomen that lasts for some time or you could even feel the pain right into your back. If the aneurysm ruptures the pain in your stomach and back can become excruciating and you have no second to waste in getting to the hospital. Never ignore these symptoms of an aortic aneurysm.

Diagnosing An Aortic Aneurysm

The first step to treating am aortic aneurysm is to diagnose it and this is done through several different kinds of testing procedures. You may need to get the following:

  • Echocardiogram
  • MRI
  • CT scan

These are all painless procedures that could show the location and the size of the aneurysm. Your doctor may not want you to get surgery on it right away, if it is not too large he may instead choose to keep an eye on it to see if it gets bigger. On the other hand if it is a large one, then surgery will definitely be in your future.

Aortic Aneurysm Surgery

Aortic aneurysm surgery requires the surgeon to remove the aneurysm and then graft a section of artificial vessel over that section. When your doctor tells you that you need to come in for monitoring you must listen to him. If you do not get regular check ups and your aneurysm bursts then it may be too late to repair it with surgery. It is far safer to have the surgery done before it gets to this point.

Prevention Of Aortic Aneurysm

Preventing an aortic aneurysm rupture is essential if you have one. By taking ACE inhibitors you may be able to cut the risk of this happening to you. You may also be able to prevent aortic aneurysms by taking better care of your heart. This means a good diet and plenty of daily exercise.

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