Dear Ultrasound Insider,
Abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) are often asymptomatic until they rupture, usually a fatal event unless surgery is performed quickly.
But while support for ultrasound screening for AAA is on the rise, concern is also growing that screening and new surgical techniques could combine to produce more perioperative deaths among patients who had a low risk of rupture, according to Thomas Jefferson University's Dr. Christopher Merritt.
The risk of elective surgery must be balanced against the rupture risk of an untreated aneurysm, the danger of which is directly related to aneurysm size, Merritt said. He discussed the issues surrounding screening ultrasound for AAA during a talk at the Leading Edge in Diagnostic Ultrasound conference in Atlantic City.
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