Aortic Aneurysm
Aortic aneurysm occurs when the wall of aorta which is the main artery from your heart become weak and bulge Aorta defined as the major and largest artery of all arteries in body.
Aortic blood vessel starts in chest from heart and runs in thoracic cavity and it rich in oxygen and carries oxygenated blood for near and far areas in body.
Aortic aneurysm is a weak area in the wall of the aorta.
Aortic aneurysm can burst or leak blood or dissect or split, that can cause life-threatening from internal bleeding or block the flow of blood from the heart to vital organs.
What is the most common site of aortic aneurysm?
In 80% of body of cases are in the abdominal section The remaining 20% of body of cases are chest aortic aneurysm whose signs and symptoms are absent in 75% of patients.
What is the clinical picture of aortic aneurysms?
The clinical picture depends on the aneurysm of aorta symptoms on the site of the lesion in body.
There are three classic symptoms of aortic aneurysms:
1.Abdominal ache- Observed in 90% of cases.
2.In75% of patient abnormal sounds above aorta, which are listened to by stethoscope.
3.In 40% of body of cases patients have a visible or felt abdominal aorta pulse.
4.In 25% of body of patients, it depends on the location of the enlarged or the bulge part of the aorta.
Patients can suffer from such complaints:
- Heart pain.
- Dizzy back.
- Shortness of breath.
- leak of blood.
- Low pulse of blood vessels and drooling.
- Difficulty swallowing.
When aneurysm of aorta is infected, it can affect central nervous system.
These focal neurological signs are associated with poor cerebral circulation.
This large set of clinical signs of bulge of aorta is because the expanding part of the blood vessel can affect different areas in body. Such as carotid artery, superior vena cava, vague nerve, tracheal, throat, oesophagus.
What is causes of aortic aneurysms?
The most popular cause of the abdominal aortic aneurysm is atherosclerosis.
This phenomenon begins with deposition on the wall of the aorta, which over time leads to the formation of a reaction, calcium deposition, and the formation of clots, a role that weakens and bulge the aorta.
Other causes of aortic aneurysm such as:
- Hypertension.
- cardiovascular problems.
- Infection of the aorta.
- Shock.
Risk factors:
The most important factors for develop abdominal aortic aneurysm include:
- Gender: It is more popular in woman than men.
- Aging: its prevalence with age?
- Hyperlipidemia: It increases the deposition of fat around the wall of the aorta.
- Cigerattes: increases the hazard for developing it.
- Some different diseases such as:
- Diseases of the connective tissues affecting the aortic wall.
- Inflammation of the aortic wall.
- Aortic injury.
- Hereditary diseases such as: Marfan syndrome.
- Diabetes.
So, when segment of the wall of aorta either abdominal or thoracic becomes weaken or thinning and enlarges or ruptures or expands or swell (bulging) like balloon and lead to blood burst ,the condition abnormally develops risks and affect on mortality rate and health in adult and children.
How to diagnosis of abdominal aortic aneurysm?
There are many methods to diagnosis aortic aneurysm such as:
1.Ultrasonography or computed tomography.
2.Ache is usually an indication of the condition, but it does not occur unless the aneurysm has reached a large size or is about to leak blood in body.
However, many patients can not have any signs and are only discovered incidentally upon a clinical examination.
3.Routine or abdominal radiographs (such as an X-ray or ultrasound) to check for another condition.
4.The doctor may feel a pulsatile mass in the centre of the abdomen.
When the stethoscope is placed in the middle of the abdomen, the doctor can hear a rush of blood rushing through the body of aortic blood vessel.
But if the patient is obese, even huge aneurysms might not be detected.
If the aneurysm is rapidly enlarging About to rupture, it is popular for the patient to feel spontaneous ache or palpation when compress is applied to the abdomen during the physical examination.
Abdominal X-rays can detect the presence of an aortic blood vessel aneurysm with calcified deposits in the wall, but this test does not provide much information beyond this.
Other diagnostic tests are more useful in detecting and estimating the extent of the aneurysms. Ultrasonography helps to show the extent of the aneurysm of aorta.
If an aneurysm is detected, ultrasonography might be repeated every few months to determine how quickly the aneurysm of aorta is enlarged.
How to treat aortic aneurysm?
Abdominal aortic blood vessel aneurysm in generally treated by surgery.
1.Surgical intervention is the treatment of choice for repair the body of aortic blood vessel aneurysm.
Surgical intervention is generally performed when there are signs of abdominal aortic artery aneurysms, but there are some cases that require an operation without signs, let’s learn the details here.
A.Surgical intervention in presence of signs:
When signs of the dilation appear and there is blood leak of the abdominal aortic artery aneurysm, the need to resort to immediate surgical therapy.
Although this Surgical intervention carries a hazard for aortic artery disease, the hazardof death in the case of an ascending aortic artery aneurysm tearing if there is no immediate surgical intervention is much than the hazardof the Surgical intervention itself, with up to 100% probability.
- Surgical intervention in the absence of signs:
For patients who have not shown any signs, Surgical intervention is recommended.
And that if the abdominal aortic artery aneurysm diameter reaches a certain threshold that poses a hazard of blood leak, the consequences of which are worse and greater than the hazard of surgical intervention.
It is recommended to perform this Surgical intervention if the diameter or aortic artery aneurysm reaches more than 5 – 6 cm.
And that Depending on the location of aneurysm of aorta, the type of expansion and the pace of its development, as well as the level of hazard resulting from the surgical intervention for the patient who get abdominal aortic artery aneurysm.
The hazard of death in a planned surgical intervention ranges from 2% to 6%.
The hazard of death in an operation performed due to a severe rupture of wall of abdominal aortic artery aneurysm can be 50%.
Hence the importance of surgical intervention in these aneurysms (bulge) of aorta before the blood leak occurs.
During the surgical intervention, the wider portion of the abdominal aortic aneurysms is replaced by an industrial (Implant) taste made from a flexible material like the original aortic.
2. Catheterization:
In recent years, a new method has been applied whereby aortic aneurysms can be treated by Stents pillars inserted into aortic blood vessel catheters without the need for surgical intervention for the wall of aneurysms (bulge) of aorta.
This method is suitable for only a specific type of abdominal aortic blood vessel aneurysms, which is in the descending part of the aorta, and it can avoid many patients, especially older people, from the hazard of surgical intervention.
And you should know that patient typically need specialists to do screening and repair this swelling and weakness or enlargement portion or aorta and sometimes urgent aortic aneurysm intervention.
Often patient needs rest and care to lower the problems on him.
How to prevention of aortic aneurysm?
To prevent infection of aneurysms (bulge) of aorta such as:
- High blood pressure has a hazard to cause abdominal aneurysms of aorta.
- Smoking.
- Hyperlipidaemia increases the hazard of the aneurysm (bulge) of abdominal aorta.
You must also follow up and monitor your vital signs especially if the one of your family get aortic blood vessel aneurysm in aorta before and that decrease the hazard to get of aorta.