← Return to Thoracic aortic aneurysm: Anyone had surgery?
DiscussionThoracic aortic aneurysm: Anyone had surgery?
Aortic Aneurysms | Last Active: May 24 7:13am | Replies (250)Comment receiving replies
Replies to "Hello, I was diagnosed in 2009 with 4.8 cm. The aneurysm is just next to Valve..."
I have AAA (Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm) 4.3 cm. That is Ascending Aorta. I also have Descending Aneurysm 2.8 cm and 2 Iliac Aneurysms one 0.8 cm and the other 1.2 cm. My Vascular doc says the Descending and the Iliacs need to be 5 cm before they consider doing anything, and then all 3 of those would be fixed with an Angiogram Angioplasti. The Ascending needs to be 7 cm before they even consider surgery, which has to be done by a Cardiovascular Heart Surgeon. Bascally open heart surgery but not involving the heart itself, because the Aneurysm is not in the heart area, it is in the stomach area. My AAA Aneurysm was found in 2015 measuring 3.7 cm so is not really growing rapidly. I cannot have Contrast due to my kidney issues, so they do MRI's without contrast to keep an eye on them once a year. If my AAA reaches 5.5 cm they will do MRI every 6 months and my other Aneurysms once they reach 4 cm they will do MRI once every 6 months also. Being 81, I really don't think the Aneurysms will have anything to do with life ending for me. More likely it will be my CKD and since it was cancer I could not get on a transplant list. I would suggest you ask your doctor about an MRI so you at least know where you stand. I cannot have CT Scans either because CT Scans basically need the Contrast to see what needs to be seen.