ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

International Angiology 2000 March;19(1):59-63

Copyright © 2001 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Wall lesions of abdominal aortic aneurysms threatening an impending rupture. Prognostic evaluations

Scorza R., De Monti M., Lazaridis J., Sgroi G., Ghilardi G.

From the Chair of General Surgery, Institute of General and Cardiovascular Surgery, University of Milan, Milan, Italy

Background. Final ­events pre­ced­ing aneu­rysm rup­ture are not com­plete­ly known. The cur­rent study ­relates to incom­plete aor­tic aneu­rysm wall ­lesions (i.e. mal­a­cia, dark stain­ing and blebs or blis­ters) as pos­sible sites of aneu­rysm rup­ture.
Methods. 162 abdom­i­nal aor­tic aneu­rysms, resect­ed ­between 1988 and 1996, have been ­reviewed and 27 cases of aneu­rysms pre­sent­ing wall thick­ness ­lesions are report­ed. The ­lesions were sched­uled by oper­a­tive ­reports and com­pared to ultra­sound and CT scans.
Results. The ­authors clas­si­fy aor­tic aneu­rysms into three phas­es, depend­ing on the ­degree of wall degen­er­a­tion viz 1. Flawless wall aneu­rysms. 2. (a-b-c) Aneurysms with intra­pa­rie­tal ­lesions. 3. Ruptured aneu­rysms.
Conclusions. It is con­clud­ed that stage 2 aor­tic aneu­rysms must be urgent­ly oper­at­ed on. They carry a high sur­gi­cal risk and, con­se­quent­ly, high­er mor­bil­ity and mor­tal­ity com­pared with stage 1 aneu­rysms.