Cor Vasa 2003, 44(7-8):394-399

Abdominal aortic aneurysm

Lenka Skalická^*, Miroslav Chochola, Petr Vařejka, Vratislav Mrázek, Simon Jirát, Jana Urbánková, Aleš Linhart, Samuel Heller, Debora Karetová, Michael Aschermann

II. interní klinika, Všeobecná fakultní nemocnice a 1. lékařská fakulta Univerzity Karlovy, Praha, Česká republika

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is relatively common disease affecting the infrarenal aorta in 95% of cases. An aortic aneurysm is defined as a localized dilatation with at least 50% increase in its normal diameter. AAA is considered to be a multifactorial condition with unclear etiology. Most cases are asymptomatic and are identified accidentally during examination using various techniques (ultrasound, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, angiography). The risk of rupture is mainly dependent on the size of the aneurysm. The standard of AAA management is surgical resection. Another recent approach is endovascular stent-graft implantation. This method is less invasive and is usually associated with a shorter hospital stay. However, no large-scale studies in patients with AAA treated by the endovascular technique have been published to date.

Keywords: Aortic abdominal aneurysm; Endovascular treatment; Stent-graft; Surgery

Published: July 1, 2003  Show citation