A burst aorta used to mean death or a major 操作／手術...now there's a one-hour 直す／買収する，八百長をする: A 'inner-tube' that will save 3,000 men a year

• e-mail

Life saving: 勝利者 Davis, pictured with his wife Carole, was 診断するd with 復部の aortic aneurysm (AAA) in a new 国家の 審査 programme

It’s 7.50am on a Thursday in operating theatre four, St George’s Hospital, Tooting, in South West London. A ten-strong 医療の team is crammed into the small room, but there is a hush in the 空気／公表する.

They are 成し遂げるing a delicate 手続き to save 67-year-old 勝利者 Davis’s life: an 復部の aortic aneurysm (AAA) 修理.

An 概算の 80,000 men 老年の 65 to 74 are 影響する／感情d by AAA, when the aorta (the main 血 大型船 that goes from the heart 経由で the chest, passing through the abdomen and 負かす／撃墜する to the femoral artery in the thigh) 弱めるs and starts to 拡大する like a blow-out on a car tyre.

Undetected, an aneurysm may 決裂. This can be 致命的な: about 6,000 men in the UK die every year in this way. If 勝利者’s 条件 had not been 選ぶd up, his? 外科医 見積（る）s it would have burst within a year. Four per cent of all men have an AAA, but most of these will be small and not すぐに life-脅すing. They are more ありふれた in smokers, those with high 血 圧力 or those with a family history.

勝利者 was 選ぶd up by the new 国家の AAA 審査 Programme, introduced in 2009. St George’s was the first hospital to 申し込む／申し出 審査 for all 65-year-old men in their catchment area (women are eight times いっそう少なく likely to have the 条件 and are so considered low-危険); the programme will cover all of England by March 2013.

審査 is done with a portable ultrasound machine which looks like a laptop and is taken to clinics and GP 外科s in the community by a trained 専門家技術者 who 審査するs about 40 people a day.

以前, AAAs were 選ぶd up incidentally in 決まりきった仕事 examinations, or seen on X-rays or ultrasound ざっと目を通すs done for other 推論する／理由s. Once 設立する, 患者s are 監視するd for an aneurysm’s growth.

Men with a small aneurysm will enter a 監視 programme. Men over 65 who have not been 診断するd with one before can self-言及する 直接／まっすぐに to the programme 経由で a website without going through a GP. It is thought 審査 could 削減（する） death 率s by almost 50 per cent.

'I couldn't wait any longer': 勝利者 Davis on the operating （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する at St George's Hospital in Tooting, South West London, to have the new 'inner-tube' 挿入するd

修理ing an AAA was once a major 操作／手術 that 伴う／関わるd 開始 the chest, with a two-week hospital stay, but 最近の 前進するs have led to a far いっそう少なく invasive technique. 外科医s use a 特に designed stent (a hollow synthetic tube) that is placed inside the aneurysm. 患者s can usually go home next day.

As he gets to work on 勝利者 in the operating theatre, vascular 外科医 Ian Loftus explains: ‘Our 患者 has an aneurysm that is 2.7in wide ? normal width is 0.7in. With no 治療 this would have been likely to burst over the coming year.’

We can see the femoral artery on the? X-ray 監視する, which shows the 外科医 his 大勝する to the aorta. The stent is 挿入するd into the aorta through two small incisions made in the femoral arteries, which are 接近d through the groin. Some have に例えるd the stent to an inner tube ? but made of wire and plastic.

A catheter (罰金 tube) is used to guide the stent through the aorta to the aneurysm 場所／位置. The stent is then inflated at the 場所／位置 of the aneurysm and 錨，総合司会者d to the normal, healthy artery above and below the 病気d 部分. This keeps the 血 from 押し進めるing against the 弱めるd arterial 塀で囲む, which in turn 妨げるs the aneurysm getting larger.

‘Our 生き残り 率s? for this 手続き are 極端に good,’ Ian 追加するs. ‘The old 操作／手術 was high-危険 ? 現実に higher 危険 than a heart-bypass. 国家的に, seven per cent of 患者s died? during or after this? 操作／手術. Our 率 is now below one? per cent.’

VIDEO: The celebrities who were 影響する／感情d by AAA; and it's 治療s:

The one-hour 直す／買収する，八百長をする: The 復部の aortic aneurysm (AAA) stent that is 挿入するd into the aorta

He 示すs a point on a 監視する to 確実にする the stent is not 押し進めるd too far into the aorta. Then, after it is placed 正確に, a 装置 is used to の近くに the artery at the end of the 手続き with a cross stitch.

At the end, Ian snaps off his gloves and says: ‘This 操作／手術 has taken one hour and 17 minutes ? 以前 it would have been a good three hours. The 患者 will be 発射する／解雇するd and home within 24 hours, getting 支援する to normal life, relieved that his AAA is no longer dangerous. Without 審査 he probably wouldn’t have known he was walking around with this 潜在的に 致命的な 条件.

‘A painless, five-minute 実験（する） is all it took to make the diagnosis and just a few weeks later he has been 扱う／治療するd and is returning to normal.’ The next day, 勝利者, an 環境の officer from Wandsworth, is on his way home with his wife Carole.

He had received the 招待 for 審査 支援する in 2009 but was 気が進まない to go. ‘I’d never had a day’s illness in my life,’ he says. ‘I felt fit and 井戸／弁護士席 and couldn’t see the point. However, Carole 主張するd so I 調書をとる／予約するd an 任命 at St George’s and was given an ultrasound examination. I was shocked to be told that I had an aneurysm that would 決裂 at some point and that this is usually 致命的な. I went for check-ups over the に引き続いて three years and earlier this year it was too large to wait any longer and I was 認める for 外科.’

勝利者 was nervous before the 操作／手術 but it wasn’t as bad as he 恐れるd. ‘I was pleased to be able to go home the に引き続いて day,’ he says. ‘I was 支援する at work in six weeks.’

勝利者’s brother also went for a 審査 and he too had an aneurysm. ‘All men my age should take the 審査 ? it’s far too important not to,’ says 勝利者.

• aaa.審査.nhs.uk