Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms

Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm

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The aorta is the main blood vessel (artery) that carries blood away from your heart to the rest of your body. An aneurysm is a bulge in an artery wall. An abdominal aortic aneurysm is a bulge in the part of your aorta that passes through your belly.

Blood Vessels

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• Aneurysms may cause a pulsing feeling in your belly

• Aneurysms that are large or are growing need surgery to prevent them from bursting

• If the aneurysm bursts, blood flows out and you have severe pain and low blood pressure

• If the aneurysm bursts, you'll die if you don't have surgery

• Doctors often find an aneurysm during a regular exam or from an imaging test (such as an x-ray or CT scan) taken for another problem and found by accident

You're more likely to have an abdominal aortic aneurysm if:

• You're a man

• You're between the ages of 50 and 80

• Someone in your family had one

• You have high blood pressure

• You smoke

The most common cause is a weakness in the wall of your aorta. This weakness is usually caused by hardening and narrowing of your aorta (atherosclerosis).

Less common causes are:

• Injuries to the aorta, often from a car crash

• Diseases that cause inflammation of the aorta, such as aortitis

• Disorders that run in families and damage your body's tissues, such as Marfan syndrome

• Certain infections, such as syphilis

Many people have no symptoms.

Symptoms of an abdominal aortic aneurysm include:

• A pulsing feeling in your belly

• Strong pain in your back even though you didn't hurt yourself

If your aneurysm bursts, symptoms include:

• Terrible pain in your lower belly and back

• Tenderness in the area over the aneurysm

• A sudden, dangerous drop in your blood pressure (shock)

You'll die if your aneurysm bursts and you don't get treatment.

Doctors usually find aneurysms during regular physical exams if they feel a pulsing bulge in the middle of your belly. Your doctor will listen over the bulge with a stethoscope to try to hear the whooshing sound that your blood makes as it moves through the aneurysm. They also may find an aneurysm by accident when they do an imaging test (such as an x-ray or CT scan) for another reason.

To check the size of the aneurysm, doctors may order:

• CT (computed tomography) scan

• MRI (magnetic resonance imaging)

• Ultrasound

Doctors will check on the size of your aneurysm about every 3 to 6 months.

If your aneurysm is smaller than about 2 inches wide, doctors may have you:

• Avoid smoking

• Take blood pressure medicine

If you have a larger aneurysm, you'll need surgery.