I had open heart surgery to repair my dissected, ascending aortic aneurysm when I was 50 years old. It was very difficult and I did not have a great experience. That said, it has extended my life and my wife and children are thankful as am I that it did. Whether or not you have your aneurysm repaired by surgery is going to be a matter of personal choice. Knowing what I know now, I don’t know that I would get the surgery done when I was 80., Being well aware of the fact that if I dissect, it’s likely going to take my life pretty quickly. So that’s a question you’re going to have to wrestle with on your own and with your doctors and your family. Again, at 50 I was glad that I survived. If I was 80, I don’t think I would do it again given how truly difficult it was to get through that surgery and experience for me. I had actually two surgeries very close together within three or four days of each other, while I was in a coma And then about two months later, I had to have throat surgery to repair damage to my throat that occurred during intubation. So it was complicated.

With regard to whether or not it has to be open-heart surgery, I am not a doctor but the way I understand the current techniques and procedures there is effectively no way to do this surgery without cracking the sternum and going in to repair an ascending aortic aneurysm. The location of the aneurysm is somewhere above the aortic valve at the top of the heart, and that area is unfortunately relatively inaccessible with the current technology. Again, my open-heart surgery was 9.5 years ago so it’s possible that technology has advanced so greatly now that they’re able to do it using a stent deployed through the femoral or other artery in the body, but I’m not aware of that. I do know that they are using stenting for abdominal aortic aneurysms, which apparently have worked fairly well. Unfortunately, for me, mine was up at the top of my heart, not down in the middle of my stomach so they took a much different approach. I would talk with your doctor and or get out on Google and see whether or not aortic repair specifically ascending aortic arch repair is being done under some circumstances using vascularly deployed stents. Good luck to you and good luck on your decision. peace.