Big Problem, Small Fix: Treating Aortic Aneurysm скачать в хорошем качестве

Big Problem, Small Fix: Treating Aortic Aneurysm

Dangerous and often undetected, aortic aneurysms are more common than you might expect. “About 4-8% of the male population greater than 60 years of age are walking around with this,” says Dr. Russell Becker, who is a vascular surgeon with Lee Memorial Health System. An aneurysm is an out-pouching or bulging of the wall of a blood vessel. Like a balloon being blown up, the tissue thins and may burst. An aortic aneurysm occurs in the main vessel that leads to heart, located between the sternum and belly button. “It’s a very vital thing to diagnose and treat up front, because if it ruptures, it is a matter of seconds before you bleed out and die,” says Dr. Becker. Certainly not all aneurysms rupture and many are never revealed; they are often picked up during unrelated tests. Based on size and location, doctors determine whether they need to take action. “The way that most people are fixing these today are less invasive than the traditional incision from the sternum to the pubic bone, where now we fix them from the inside out,” says Dr. Becker. In a much smaller surgery, doctors thread a catheter through an artery in the leg. Concealed within is a stent, which they deploy inside the aorta. “I always tell the patients what we are doing is basically relining their vessels with a graft,” says Dr. Becker. This is what’s left behind. Unlike a tiny heart stent, this stent covers the entire area to provide reinforcement. “The stent is made to mimic or replicate our natural anatomy, so you have to cover all the areas of the aneurysm. And we do that by what we call a good seal zone above and below the aneurysm,” says Dr. Becker. Using a smaller fix to treat a big problem, surgeons are able to quickly get to the heart of the matter. View More Health Matters video segments at leememorial.org/healthmatters/ Lee Memorial Health System in Fort Myers, FL is the largest network of medical care facilities in Southwest Florida and is highly respected for its expertise, innovation and quality of care. For nearly a century, we’ve been providing our community with everything from primary care treatment to highly specialized care services and robotic assisted surgeries. Visit leememorial.org