Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm

A 4 year old topic, but for others who read this, here's my personal experience.
When in doubt, go to your doctor and take a CT Scan. This with contrast will clearly show any abdominal aorta aneurysm, called AAA.
IF less than 5 centimeter, instant life changes required: no smoking, no acid soft drinks, healthy food and exercise.

If when larger than 5 centimeter, ct-scan more often, and patient and doctor must talk how much longer before surgery is needed, and life saving.
I had 2 evar surgery, a minimal aaa surgery if location of the aaa is near the groin area. Both my surgery had complications, less flood of blood to feet, and 1 foot become numb. Also Staph infection in surgery area. Recovery after this surgery is much faster than a traditional open aaa surgery, but only a option in limited cases.
Open AAA surgery, hospitalization 14 days, recovery will be long (months) took 4 months before I was pain free. Scars are horrible after surgery, but 4-6 months later my chest stomach scar had faded well.
Scar on upper thigh took longer to heal.

Don't be afraid, don't wait!
Go to your hospital once you feel something is wrong internally. CT-Scan will tell if anything is going on.

In my case, my pulse was visible on my stomach when lay down on the bed.

Hi, I’m glad you’ve recuperated , my AAA is at 4.6 cm but my vascular surgeon wants to do EVAR , because it was 4.0 10 months ago , I’m a bit reluctant, because I’ve heard of people requiring open repair after EVAR complications was this your case also , you said you had two procedures thanks for any input

"I’ve heard of people requiring open repair after EVAR complications was this your case also"

Yes. First Evar led to numb foot and unable to walk.
Second Evar was done 1 month later. Staphylococcus bacteria that remained for many months, even 5 different antibiotics was prescribed by 2 different hospitals.

2 months later full open AAA surgery.
Staphylococcus bacteria remained even after this.
Until 4th surgery 5 months later, at another top end private hospital, one of the best in the country.

I can understand your doctor suggest Evar because less intrusive, fewer complications, much shorter recovery time, cheaper for insurance or you.

Whatever procedure the patient/doctor agree to, the risk of complications will always be there.
Before first surgery I researched to find best hospital and surgeon in my part of the country. Still, I endured many complications.

My complications become more severe after AAA surgery:
● Blood clot.
● Erectile dysfunction (temporary)
● Ejaculation impossible (reach orgasm without any ejaculation) until this day.
● Still partly numb foot, (that required a fifth surgery of a different kind).

The blood clot pain was insane, compared to any other pain one experienced before. I knew right away what it was, and ambulance was called. Emergency surgery saved my life.

Today I still suffer pain, sometimes so severe that I'm sure I will go to hospital same day, and numb foot some days.
Still prescribed strong opioids that I wish to avoid.
My hospital bag are always by the entrance door.

When in doubt, go to another hospital for second opinion.

In my case I still wish I had chosen AAA first time, and saved myself for the 2 previous surgeries. But before any surgery, I wanted smaller scars and shorter recovery time.

From surgery #4, I find it difficult to fully recover, also mentally.
3 previous surgeries, I worked hard to regain balance, learn to walk again, eat all I could to gain weight again.
Since surgery #4 I am mentally and physically totally drained, and find recovery impossible. Limit the number of surgeries needed, when possible.

Whatever surgery one choose, this will change your life, more than you can imagine.
I sincerely hope you will be luckier than me.

Luckybear,
Just read your post. I am currently recuperating from open abdominal dissection repair of my Superior Mesenteric Artery. I also have an aneurysm of my celiac artery that will need to be watched. My surgeon, from the Rochester campus, had a bunch of other tests/procedures done to eliminate other causes for my pain. These all came back negative, so the decision was made to proceed with the open abdominal repair. Thank God that we did. Surgery was roughly 10.5 hours, they found multiple adhesions that were restricting flow to the intestines and they had to address these prior to fixing the dissection. Once they got to the SMA, they discovered a false lumen that was causing significant issues as well. Then they were able to do the patch repair of the dissection. Recovery is going well so far. And with God's help that will continue. I can finally eat without fear of pain/discomfort. What I can tell you is that you need to be your best advocate. Listen to what your body is telling you. I am glad that I did (along with my wife's help).

#faithoverfear

I'd like to invite @heather1976 to this conversation on abdominal aortic aneurysms. Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect @heather1976. I've invited you to this conversation to meet @luckybear and @expat69 who recently posted in this discussion as well and may be able to share some of their journey with you.

@heather1976, you mentioned you are wondering on what you should be looking out for since you were recently diagnosed. Did you ever hear back about getting a scan from the vascular specialist? Have you tried reaching out again to confirm they don't want to proceed with that?

"I’ve heard of people requiring open repair after EVAR complications was this your case also"

Yes. First Evar led to numb foot and unable to walk.
Second Evar was done 1 month later. Staphylococcus bacteria that remained for many months, even 5 different antibiotics was prescribed by 2 different hospitals.

2 months later full open AAA surgery.
Staphylococcus bacteria remained even after this.
Until 4th surgery 5 months later, at another top end private hospital, one of the best in the country.

I can understand your doctor suggest Evar because less intrusive, fewer complications, much shorter recovery time, cheaper for insurance or you.

Whatever procedure the patient/doctor agree to, the risk of complications will always be there.
Before first surgery I researched to find best hospital and surgeon in my part of the country. Still, I endured many complications.

My complications become more severe after AAA surgery:
● Blood clot.
● Erectile dysfunction (temporary)
● Ejaculation impossible (reach orgasm without any ejaculation) until this day.
● Still partly numb foot, (that required a fifth surgery of a different kind).

The blood clot pain was insane, compared to any other pain one experienced before. I knew right away what it was, and ambulance was called. Emergency surgery saved my life.

Today I still suffer pain, sometimes so severe that I'm sure I will go to hospital same day, and numb foot some days.
Still prescribed strong opioids that I wish to avoid.
My hospital bag are always by the entrance door.

When in doubt, go to another hospital for second opinion.

In my case I still wish I had chosen AAA first time, and saved myself for the 2 previous surgeries. But before any surgery, I wanted smaller scars and shorter recovery time.

From surgery #4, I find it difficult to fully recover, also mentally.
3 previous surgeries, I worked hard to regain balance, learn to walk again, eat all I could to gain weight again.
Since surgery #4 I am mentally and physically totally drained, and find recovery impossible. Limit the number of surgeries needed, when possible.

Whatever surgery one choose, this will change your life, more than you can imagine.
I sincerely hope you will be luckier than me.

I sympathize as it is scary to be told, but I'd rather know about the aneurysm than not know. I also have AAA measured at 4.1cm which was discovered in 2006 while having a CT scan for another matter. The good news is that for the past six years, the aneurysm has been stable at the 4.1cm size. The vascular folks at Mayo tell me that 5.5cm is the benchmark size where the benefits of surgery outweigh the risk of rupture. So, watchful waiting continues. After years of reading, I believe that many people have aneurysms that remain relatively stable for life. Blood pressure and cholesterol management are important as is the opinion of a major medical organization such as Mayo who deal with AAA on a regular basis.

A millimeter or two is pretty small and within the margin of error. Mine has been all over the map, from 3.9 cm to 4.6. Depends on your local hospital lab, the tech doing the scan and the doctor doing the interpretation. I believe one thing the local lab will not do is is give a smaller measurement from one they have previously given. I live in Maine and go to my local (small) hospital. In 2009, the ultrasound came back at 4.3cm, increasing from 3.9cm. Like you, I was upset and went to a large, well known Boston hospital and had a 3-D CT scan with contrast. It came through at 4.6cm. The chief of surgery met with me (20 minutes) and pretty much said I should entertain open AAA surgery since I wasn't a great candidate for EVAR. Well, I became really concerned because as you know, open AAA surgery is a big deal with lots of risks. I decided to get a second opinion, so I got a copy of my CT scan on a DVD from the Boston hospital and began research on the best hospitals in the country who deal with many AAA surgeries. I settled on Mayo in Rochester, MN simply because they have a well deserved reputation and do over 200 AAA surgeries annually. I made an appointment with the Mayo Vascular department for a second opinion and it turned out to be a great move. Where the Boston Vascular spent 20 minutes with me and did not actually show me my own CT scan, the Mayo Vascular intake doctors spent a full couple of hours with me actually showing me how they measure an aneurysm using the same CTscan DVD from the Boston hospital. The Mayo interpretation was that my aneurysm had not changed from the initial CT scan in 2006 of 3.9/4.0cm and that it did not measure 4.6cm. I now fly out to Mayo once a year for a consult and ultrasound scan and there has been no change. My comfort level with the folks at Mayo is high and while it costs $500/$600 annually to fly out and stay one night, to me its worth the peace of mind that comes from knowing I'm at the right place.