Aortic Aneurysm Treatment
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Worrying about your aneurysm can take a toll. You're wondering if it's growing. What if you need to see a heart surgeon? If it bursts, will you be able to get help?
At UVA Health, we can answer your questions about aneurysm treatment. And, our heart doctors offer treatments that don't have long recovery times.
Aortic Aneurysm Treatment Experts
UVA Health's heart care teams deliver on the promise of advanced medicine. We make sure you get the thorough attention you deserve. That means scheduling visits so that you can see as many specialists as you can in one day. Using our high-tech scanning and imaging equipment to take pictures of your heart, arteries, and veins, our team can make a lifestyle and treatment plan that's right for you.
In fact, Becker’s Hospital Review named UVA Health’s Heart & Vascular Center to its 2023 list of 100 hospitals and health systems with great heart programs.
See other awards and recognition for our heart care.
Getting Aortic Aneurysm Treatment
If you need to treat your aortic aneurysm, you and your heart doctor will talk about what’s best. You have a few choices:
- Watching it closely: In the early stages of an aneurysm, you probably don't have any symptoms. We’ll check the size of your aneurysm regularly. If it’s not getting bigger or changing, you may not need any treatment.
- Changes to lifestyle: Stopping smoking, controlling diabetes, and eating a healthy diet may keep an aneurysm from growing.
- Taking medicine: Medicine that lowers high blood pressure and high cholesterol can help with aneurysms.
- Procedures or surgery: Whether you need a procedure or surgery depends on the size of your aneurysm or if it’s changing. In some cases, you might need surgery using a large cut in your chest or stomach (called open surgery).
Stent-Graft Surgery: Results With Less Strain
When possible, our heart surgeons use a technique that causes less strain on your body: a stent-graft.
Aortic Aneurysm Repair: Jerry's Story
As Jerry Austin's aortic aneurysm grew, he researched hospitals around Virginia looking for a long-lasting aortic aneurysm repair option for his active lifestyle. Through his research, he found that UVA Health was his best option. Now, he's got a long-lasting repair he can trust. See
Open Repair of an Aortic Aneurysm: Jerry's Story Transcript Jerry Austin: About 10 years ago, I had some pain in my side. I went to the emergency room and they did a CAT scan and the doctor told me, he said, "You've got an aortic aneurysm." They said, "Well, no surgeon will touch it right now because it's still relatively small." But over the years, it kind of got bigger and bigger and bigger, and then it got to the point where it could be operated on, and I asked the doctor to refer me up to UVA because I'd done some research and I found out that UVA was the place to go. W. Darrin Clouse, MD: Jerry came and was very animated and very active. He was in outstanding shape for someone of his age, and he was concerned because he wanted to maintain his active lifestyle as well as have a durable option for his aneurysm, simply because he figured he was going to live a long time. We know that about 10 to 15 years after Stent-Graft Repair, the durability becomes a question. With Open Repair, once the aneurysm is resected and a graft sewn in, the aneurysm is gone, and we know the durability of that repair long term is quite good. Jerry Austin: The Open Repair is a little bit more risky upfront, but you've got a permanent solution. You don't have to worry about 10 years down the road having to have something else done. Now, surgery was scheduled for 7:30. I got in there, and I mean, within 30 minutes, they were putting me under. And then I woke up in the intensive care, and everything went great. W. Darrin Clouse, MD: Jerry did a great job. He was in such great shape. He left the hospital in five days, was asking within a couple of weeks how much he could do and if he could do more and if he could do more. The benefit of getting your aortic care at UVA is that we have a full spectrum of specialists who can treat your aortic disease with open operations, with less invasive treatment, or with a combination of both depending upon your anatomy and what your needs are. Jerry Austin: I believe that a person can stay physically active and be in really super good health up until the day they just fall over and don't work no more. So I'm looking at from here on out hopefully good health. I've got longevity in my blood.
3D Imaging for Aneurysms
We use advanced tech to get 3D images of your aneurysms. These pictures help us decide on the right treatment plan for you.
Genetic Counseling For You & Your Family
We also aim to prevent aneurysms from happening in the first place. Some heart and vascular conditions run in the family. That might mean there is something in your genes that causes it. Your genes are like instructions for creating and running your body. You get them from your parents.
Our genetic counselors can check you and your family members to see if you’re at risk of getting aneurysms. They can also check if you have other health problems that can cause aneurysms.
Norm's Burst Aortic Aneurysm
<p>"People don't realize how big that feels. Just being alive," says Norm. UVA Health surgeons got Norm through a complex and scary surgery, even after he'd been turned away elsewhere. Years after aortic aneurysm surgery saved his life, he cherishes the time he now has to spend with family.</p>
Read Norm's StoryAortic aneurysm can happen anywhere along your aorta. They have different names depending on where they show up:
If they happen in your chest (called thoracic aortic aneurysms):
- Aortic root aneurysm (where your aorta starts at the top part of your heart )
- Ascending thoracic aortic aneurysm (the part leading up from your heart)
- Aortic arch aneurysm (where the aorta curves to start going down)
- Descending thoracic aortic aneurysm (in your chest leading down to your belly)
If they happen in your belly (called abdominal aortic aneurysms):
- Thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms (where your chest and belly meet)
- Abdominal aortic aneurysms (in your belly)
- Suprarenal aortic aneurysms (around your kidneys)