Aortic aneurysm by definition is the dilatation of the aorta. Aorta is the main blood vessel that bring blood from the heart into the rest of the body. Sometimes because of risk factors or some of the congenital factors the aorta becomes expanded. It can rupture like a balloon and as it expands it can form a clot or a thrombus. It can move to the legs or internal organs and it can cause gangrene or complete cut off of circulation. Most of the time aortic aneurysm is diagnosed incidentally when a patient goes for an ultrasonic scan. Normally we keep a cut off of 4.5 to 5 cm diameter before we intervene these patients because most of them are diabetic or hypertensive. They need proper control of their diabetes and hypertension to stop the growth of aortic aneurysm. Sometimes when the patient comes with the complaint of ruptured aortic aneurysm they go for immediate surgery. Also if the aneurysm is small and not very symptomatic every six months we call the patient and we do an ultrasound to see the rate of spread. If the rate of spread is quite high then we subject them to a surgical intervention because of high mortality rate and it is better to tackle these when they are smaller and symptomatic.

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