Chances of survival

The chances of survival of a rupture of the aortic aneurysm are poor. If a rupture occurs outside a hospital, half of those affected die on the way to the hospital. A quarter can then no longer be successfully treated in the clinic, as the blood loss is already too great.

Of the patients who are operated on, 40% do not survive. Only in a few cases is there a real chance of survival, as the time for a successful intervention is very short. In contrast, an aortic aneurysm detected and treated early on has a good prognosis.

Do you have a reduced life expectancy with an aortic aneurysm?

Life expectancy with an aortic aneurysm depends on many factors. Firstly, it is important that the aneurysm is detected and treated in time. If this happens too late, there is a risk of rupture, which in most cases leads to death.

After a successful intervention, the risk of rupture is very low. However, life expectancy now depends on the underlying disease, such as arteriosclerosis. This is because surgery “repairs” the aneurysm, but does not treat the cause.

Arteriosclerosis therefore continues to exist and can lead to further diseases. In most cases the cause is high blood pressure (hypertension) and the resulting hardening of the arteries (arteriosclerosis). In particular, undetected and untreated hypertension that persists for a long period of time is responsible for the formation of an aortic aneurysm.

A further cause of aortic aneurysm can be trauma caused by car accidents (acceleration injury) or a medical vascular puncture. In general, it can be said that previous vascular injuries of any kind can lead to an aortic aneurysm. Inflammatory causes, such as inflammation of the arteries (arteritis), bacterial infections (syphilis) or infections caused by fungi are a rare cause.

Very rarely an aortic aneurysm results from the so-called cystic median necrosis or the rare Kawasaki syndrome. If a narrowing of the aorta occurs for whatever reason, the area behind the narrowing usually begins to expand. An aneurysm develops.

An aortic aneurysm may also be congenital. There are some diseases that affect the collagen system of the organism. Since collagen is also present in the walls of the blood vessels, a disturbance in collagen synthesis leads to instability, which can result in an aneurysm.

The so-called Ehlers-Danlos syndrome should be mentioned here (those affected are usually conspicuous by an unnatural ability to overstretch the joints). The Marfan syndrome is a malformation syndrome of the mesenchyma. This often results in an inability to close the heart valves (mitral insufficiency) and/or an aortic aneurysm. Furthermore, a hereditary component is also assumed to promote the development of aortic aneurysms.