Emergency endovascular management of a leaking saccular abdominal aortic aneurysm

Abstract

Abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) are relatively common, potentially life threatening conditions that are often asymptomatic and incidentally detected on routine screening for other problems. Vague abdominal pain and back ache are often the presenting complaints of this disease and are also the commonest complaints that a doctor comes across in the outpatient as well as the emergency room (ER). Hence it is easy to misdiagnose an AAA. A case report illustrating one such patient who presented to the gastroenterologist with vague abdominal pain and backache in whom an abdominal aneurysm was incidentally detected on ultrasound, is presented here. The patient course and complications that developed along with key points to be learnt so as to identify this disease at an early stage and prevent its complications, are discussed. Keywords: abdominal aortic aneurysm; EVAR; ultrasound screening for aneurysm; saccular aneurysm