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Update on conflicting surgery recommendations
Aortic Aneurysms | Last Active: Aug 24 9:16am | Replies (43)Comment receiving replies
I commented before that I thought your Montefiore surgeon was inaccurate in his estimation of your risk. Let me add a request for that research on length v diameter. I am not turning up anything striking.
And I hope all goes well for you, both on your trip and your surgery, should you choose it. I very much wanted to “get it done” until I ran the numbers on the Society of Thoracic Surgeons risk calculator (STS.org, I think). Although in absolutely good health, my risk of morbidity was ~6%, not counting re-operation, aFib development, etc. The good centers ( Cleveland, UCSF, MGH/B, and lots of others) have gotten mortality down under 1%, but MI/stroke/kidney failure etc still an issue.
If you (or I) were really at a 10% risk of rupture or dissection, then we would equal or surpass the risk of surgery, but if our true risk of r/d is 1%, I’m staying vertical.
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It is great that you did a lot of research. It is always smart to be an informed patient. When I went through this 6 months ago I factored in a couple of other considerations. The first was continuing to live with the constant anxiety of knowing I had an aneurysm that could dissect or rupture even though the risk was small. The second was the future risk. I was 72 and my aneurysm was growing slowly. If it continued to grow at the same rate I probably wouldn’t be at 5.5 cm for another 5 years. At my age every year I waited to have surgery increased the chance of having some of the complications you mentioned. So considering everything I decided to have surgery. My surgery went well and I had no complications and I was out of the hospital in 5 days. It has been 4 months post surgery and I am about 95% recovered (my sternum aches if I do too much). Everyone has to do their own risk assessment and be comfortable with it. I wish everyone the best whatever they decide.