The aorta is the body's main artery, curving down from the base of the heart into the abdomen, where it divides into two smaller arteries.
Problems occur when the aortic walls weaken.
Most patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms have no symptoms until the artery dilates way out, and when it does that the aneurysm can grow to a very dangerous size, and at this point, a person may experience back pain. Open abdominal repair has been the gold standard of treatment, but a new, minimally invasive surgery is safer and easier on patients. Traditionally, when a patient comes in and has an aneurysm of their aorta, they have a lung incision from their chest down to their belly. And they traditionally stay in the hospital probably about 10 to 15 days. In the new endovascular repair, a custom-made stint graft is inserted into the femoral artery to the aorta through a small incision in the upper leg.