Only one-fourth come out with any semblance of their former lives. Before the stent-graft was developed, the solution for repairing such aneurysms was major abdominal surgery where the diseased aorta is replaced with a fabric graft. Patients are hospitalized about 10 days and then require about three months recuperation. The stent-graft replaces the aneurysm from the inside, using a fabric graft held in position by stents, and requires only two small incisions in the groin to insert. It takes two to three hours for the surgery and is less painful for the patient.
Recuperation usually takes about a week.
While the new system is great news for patients, it's a lot more work for the doctors. For surgeons, there's much more planning and preparation. The expansion force of the stents holds the stent-graft in place, sealing off the aneurysm. The stent-graft has made it possible to treat aneurysms earlier and far less invasively than before. With the older method, an aneurysm had to measure at least five centimeters because for anything smaller, the risk of surgery was greater than the risk of rupture.