Experiences with abdominal aortic aneurysms?

[luvwinnie]

My dad has had one for about 3 years now. He had an ultrasound in Aug. 2004 and one just last week. Dr's office called with one of those "Call us back" messages that you read so much into (this office tends to NOT call if all is fine)...just wondering what other experiences have been as far as time from diagnosis/size of aneurysm, to the point of needing surgery. His last measurement was about 3 cm...usually at 5 they want to operate.

 

[mom2kazkids]

Being an ICU nurse and taking care of people that have abdominal aneurysms repaired, it is easy to fix them when they are small (like 5cm) than waiting since they can leak or rupture. How old is your dad, and is he in relatively good health? Some of our surgeons in this area (Green Bay, WI) will do a procedure called an endovascular repair. It entails going thru the groin in two incisions, and feeding a gortex graft into the aneuresym then inflating it and securing it into the vessel with the aneurysm. Our patients that have this procedure done are in the ICU overnight, and home in two nights, but we really only do it in healthy people that meet other requirements.

Let me know if you have other questions.


Barb

 

[Tigger&Belle]

My FIL had the operation and recoved fine. I don't know the details about the size of it.

A lot of advances have been made in recent years--my died died of one over 17 years ago.

It's great that your dad's was caught early and they've been able to monitor him.

 

[arminnie]

Some of our surgeons in this area (Green Bay, WI) will do a procedure called an endovascular repair. It entails going thru the groin in two incisions, and feeding a gortex graft into the aneuresym then inflating it and securing it into the vessel with the aneurysm. Our patients that have this procedure done are in the ICU overnight, and home in two nights, but we really only do it in healthy people that meet other requirements.

That's the procedure that my dad just had done in September. He is 84 and is in fairly good health for his age, but has diabetes, high BP, and has had a by-pass. I'm not sure I would call him "healthy".

My dad was in recovery for several hours but went to a regular room that night. We didn't even stay with him. The doctor said that most people go home the next day, but he had to stay longer because his potassium levels were high. He felt great and wasn't even on pain drugs.

I think his was at the 5 cm size. It was really pretty easy surgery all things considered - but his only other surgeries were a knee replacement and a triple bypass.

 

[Tracey1974]

My grandmother has one and it is just too close to an artery so they can't operate on it. It has been about 5 1/2 mm for about 2 years and she has Alzheimer's so apparently she can go at any time from either condition. If it wasn't so close to the artery, they would have operated.

 

[Virgo10]

My mother had this surgery when she was 77. The aneurysm was found accidentally during an upper GI. She had gone in for the test to determine what was causing stomach pain. It wasn't the aneurysm that was doing it, turned out to be medication she was on, but that test probably saved her life.

It was bad enough so that they wanted to do surgery immediately. She wasn't in very good health but came through the operation and went on to live another 16 years.

 

[minkydog]

My grandfather had this for about 30 years, wouldn't get it fixed.He was convinced he would die soon anyway. It finally "blew" at age 88. He had alzheimer's by then and never knew a thing.

 

[golfgal]

Both my step-grandparents died from these, first my step-grandma and almost exactly a year later, my step-grandpa. Probably not what you want to hear, though, sorry.

 

[luvwinnie]

Thank you all. Dr's office said all was fine! I have to talk to dr. to see if it grew at all though.

He's 71...he's beaten cancer twice: Melanoma and renal carcinoma (he has just one kidney now)...has a heart stent, high bp and cholesterol.

 

[2buzzboys]

My dad had this done about 2yrs ago. He was 62 then. They also had to wait until 5cm which took about a year. My dad has had 2 open bypass and several other heart operations and he turned out fine. In fact he just went through another surgery for gaul stones a few months ago.I hope thats it. Anyway just be glad they caught it. Many times it goes unfound and then it could be deadly. Everything will be fine.

 

[lsyorke]

The endovascular repair is an amazing procedure. My father had this done 5 years ago(he wasn't a candidate for open repair) and has done extremely well. Annual cat scans are the only follow up he needs at this point.