Ascending Aortic Aneurysm Surgery: When To Have Surgery

I had thoracic aortic aneurysm from ascending aorta till proximal descending aorta of size 6.7 cm at very high risk. I developed hoarseness in voice and severe back pain as symptom. I did undergo successful hybrid surgery ( open heart + endovascular) for approx 12 hours . My brain branch arteries of aorta were also partially clogged and they were also bypassed. I had this surgery one month ago and now recovering well🙂.

I have an ascending aorta aneurysm that's 5.9 cm. Surgery is early next month. Good luck to me . . .

helpful, thanks!

I’m glad he made this video, it answered all my questions hence saved me a trip from going out there.

Well mine is a 6.2 cm arising aneurysm and severe aortic stenosis... waiting to speak to surgeon end of the month.... im 42 i want this surgery now like today. But in great spirit now the less 😊.

I also have a 5.8 ascending aortic aneurysm...surgery very soon...good luck to all of us!

I am a healthy 61 year old male, with a mildly dilated aortic root of just 3.8cm. However, after adjusting for sex, age, height, weight and body mass, I am told I am simply at the "outer limits of normal". This was 7 1/2 years ago and a CT scan last week is showing all stable and no growth for 7 1/2 years! I was told I should NOT have any worries.

Exellent video that explains the risks well. However, I was surprised he didn't use a new whiteboard marker for the presentation!!! 😄

I have a distal aortic aneurysm trying find out more about it

I have a AAA at 5.4 and are about to have surgery

All true providing nothing changes in the lifestyle. If exercising, healthy diet, good sleeping - then aneurysm growing is slow.
Bear in mind that the normal diameter is also a statistic value, that is a median (or average?) value, so evaluation of the growth rate is a better tool to evaluate the risk than the diameter alone.

I am in my early-mid 20s, when I was 19, I found out that I had an Aortic Root aneurysm. I was born with congenital heart defects and valve insufficiency, but we had no idea about the Aneurysm until my doctor found it during an echo after I was having chest pain (unrelated to the aneurysm, the chest pain was likely from severe stress, but I wanted to be sure, so at least I wouldn't be stressed about the chest pain lol). This doctor, who had performed open-heart surgery on me once before, told me nothing apart from "So you have an aneurysm, it's not a problem right now, and you can still have kids" (I was single, 19, and a college student, so I have no idea where kids came from.) Went a couple of years without having it looked at because I didn't realize how serious it could be and my doctor never said anything else. Got a new doctor who actually cares enough to give me information and is keeping me to regular CTs. I am so thankful that I went in for that echo. No family history, no life-style causes, no diseases, nothing would have made me think twice about my Aorta.

Dr Roselli. Funny how we met in the operating room because my surgeon had an emergency the previous night. Lol

Why not offer surgery that keeps the aneurysm from getting any bigger and restricts its growth altogether? The PEARS procedure which is offered in the UK and Australia does just that. It doesn't require a heart-lung machine and there are no incisions to the heart at all. I hope more people learn about PEARS and the FDA finally approves this procedure so US patients can have this done. It's a matter of time when the US finally wakes up and recognises the brilliance, beauty and simplicity of the personalized external aortic root support (PEARS).

I am female 34 years old with Marfan syndrome .
I am having mitral valve repair and my aorta root is 3.8cm and aortic valve 1 degree prolapse twenty years now!
I asked my surgeon to fix both of the problems but he told me is not the right time to fix the aorta before reaches 4.8-5.5 cm !
I just have to monitor the aneurysm quite often.

@lairthehair what happened?

Thank you for the info I feel better now I have a AAA and it is 5 cm they are doing another ct scan in 6 months  but I was scared when they told me it was 5 cm because 2 years ago it was  only 2 cm.

I think the Dr. got his ratio inverted. I've been told my root is almost 6 cm, so an R of 3. Pi x r*2= 3.14 x 9/188= .15 The inverse of that, however, is 6.65, which is in the order of magnitude of the 10 in his example.

The calculation is wrong. Can you clarify?

Im at 5.5cm with a bicuspid valve I have to wait for surgery I wonder how long I can last?
the risk factor being so high Im set up for angiogram so Im in line for the surgery but information on people living with high risk is almost zero Im hoping that the aorta has some tolerance to give me the time i need