As others will tell you, do not think that going local is the best thing. Many patients recover quickly and can find good follow up care at home.

For the surgery, look for a center that does high volume of AAA surgeries. Certainly the Cleveland Clinic, Mayo, JHHS and centers in Houston (Houston Methodist) also do.

I always tell patients to think about how far they travel for fun. It is more important to travel to an excellent AAA center. Because the center does other types of cardiac surgeries does not mean that they are expert in ascending aortic aneurysm surgeries - which tends to be more complex than other types of aneurysm surgeries and also many other types of heart surgeries.