Benefits and Risks – Endovascular Stent Grafting Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA)

Overview

There are risks with any type of surgery. The benefits and safety of any surgical procedure must be carefully evaluated. Ask your doctor how these potential benefits and risks may affect you.

Benefits

Endovascular stent graft therapy is a minimally invasive surgical procedure. With endovascular stent graft therapy, it is not necessary to perform open-chest or open-abdominal aneurysm surgery. For some patients, this reduces the recovery time by several days. In some cases, patients can return home and return to normal activities within 4 to 6 weeks.

Risks

Endovascular stent grafting does not require the removal of part of the aorta; however, there is a small, but significant, risk of aneurysm rupture that is slightly higher than that of open-surgery aneurysm repair.

Other complications associated with endovascular stent grafting include:

• Blood leakages around the stent graft
• Blockage of the flow of blood through the stent graft
• Movement of the stent graft from its original site of placement
• Fracture of the stent graft
• Infection
• Rupture of the aneurysm or aorta

To monitor these possible complications, your doctor will schedule periodic visits after your surgery. It is important to keep these appointments to make sure your stent is working correctly.

Endovascular Stent Grafting Is Not for Everyone

Your aortic aneurysm may not have the right shape, or it may be too close to other organs. Your doctor or vascular surgeon will help you decide whether endovascular stent grafting or open surgery is the best treatment option for you.