Your ER Doc » aneurysms http://www.yourerdoc.com Stories from the Emergency Room plus answers to your medical and health related questions Sat, 01 May 2010 19:50:19 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.1 en hourly 1 John Ritter: aortic dissection or aneurysm? http://www.yourerdoc.com/john-ritter-aortic-dissection-or-aneurysm/ http://www.yourerdoc.com/john-ritter-aortic-dissection-or-aneurysm/#comments Sat, 27 Dec 2008 14:46:11 +0000 Your ER Doc http://www.yourerdoc.com/?p=899 A point of contention among vascular surgeons is the lack of understanding among the public, and even medical people, about the difference between aortic dissections and aneurysms. To be fair, I don’t have any first hand knowledge of what happened to John Ritter, although the media reported that he had an aortic dissection. Put plainly, a dissection is when the walls of the artery strip away from each other because blood flows directly into the wall of the vessel, instead of through the middle of it.
In contrast, aneurysms are abnormal bulging of the arteries which can sometimes lead to rupture. Many people are diagnosed with aneurysms that are completely asymptomatic, and undergo elective repair of them before a rupture happens. Dissections are trickier. Until a dissection actually happens, there will usually be no findings on physical exam or on CT scan.
]]> http://www.yourerdoc.com/john-ritter-aortic-dissection-or-aneurysm/feed/ 4