Treatment guidelines for aneurisms of the aorta

Aneurysmatic diseases of the aorta usually have a bad prognosis in the case of acute rupture. Guidelines exist for surgical treatment but are relatively old and have not yet been brought up to date. By introducing new techniques, thoracic aneurysms are predominantly treated by endoluminal means, for asymptomatic type B dissections, however, a stent graft insertion cannot be principally recommended. For thoracoabdominal aneurysms, a combined endoluminal and open surgical approach is still under evaluation. For the relatively frequent problem of infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysms, an endoluminal approach is more and more taken although randomized trials have not yet shown an improvement concerning long-term mortality in favor of endografts. Interdisciplinary guidelines do not yet exist. (orig.)