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Research Highlights
VA Study Helps Determine Risk in Aneurysm Surgery
Taken from the Veterans Health Administration Highlights dated June 14, 2002
VA research may help doctors decide when it is safe to operate on high-risk patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA). The findings are published in the June 12 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
Doctors, led by Frank Lederle, M.D., of the Minneapolis VAMC, observed 198 AAA patients and determined that the risk of rupture increases dramatically as the aneurysms develop beyond 5.5 cm. in diameter. For some patients, the surgery may present a risk greater than the aneurysm itself. But as they get larger, the aneurysms become more dangerous, and eventually surgery becomes the lesser risk.
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