Is It Safe to Just Monitor An Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm?
An aneurysm is a swelling of an artery due to weakness in the vessel wall. It is a common cause of sudden death and often provides no warning signs or symptoms. Currently, the only method to prevent rupture of an aneurysm is surgical repair of the vessel. But, because of the risks involved in surgery, the aneurysm is generally allowed to reach a size for which the risk of rupture outweighs the risk of surgery. Is it safe to monitor an abdominal aneurysm rather than have surgery right away? A report in the medical journal The Lancet on November 21, 1998 bears upon this potentially life-and-death decision. The Lancet report comes from the investigators in the UK (United Kingdom) Small Aneurysms Trial. They studied whether surveillance by ultrasonography (ultrasound) of small aneurysms before surgery to monitor their size would affect the long-term survival of patients who underwent early surgery. Patients with small abdominal aneurysms were monitored. The aneurysms were from 4.0 to 5.5 c
