ANEURYSMS OF INDIVIDUAL ARTERIES

#Thoracic Aneurysm.#—­All varieties of aneurysm occur in the aorta, the fusiform being the most common, although a sacculated aneurysm frequently springs from a fusiform dilatation.

The clinical features depend chiefly on the direction in which the aneurysm enlarges, and are not always well marked even when the sac is of considerable size.  They consist in a pulsatile swelling—­sometimes in the supra-sternal notch, but usually towards the right side of the sternum—­with an increased area of dulness on percussion.  With the X-rays a dark shadow is seen corresponding to the sac.  Pain is usually a prominent symptom, and is largely referable to the pressure of the aneurysm on the vertebrae or the sternum, causing erosion of these bones.  Pressure on the thoracic veins and on the air-passage causes cyanosis and dyspnoea.  When the oesophagus is pressed upon, the patient may have difficulty in swallowing.  The left recurrent nerve may be stretched or pressed upon as it hooks round the arch of the aorta, and hoarseness of the voice and a characteristic “brassy” cough may result from paralysis of the muscles of the larynx which it supplies.  The vagus, the phrenic, and the spinal nerves may also be pressed upon.  When the aneurysm is on the transverse part of the arch, the trachea is pulled down with each beat of the heart—­a clinical phenomena known as the “tracheal tug.”  Aneurysm of the descending aorta may, after eroding the bodies of the vertebrae (Fig. 71) and posterior portions of the ribs, form a swelling in the back to the left of the spine.

Inasmuch as obliteration of the sac and the feeding artery is out of the question, surgical treatment is confined to causing coagulation of the blood in an extension or pouching of the sac, which, making its way through the parietes of the chest, threatens to rupture externally.  This may be achieved by Macewen’s needles or by the introduction of wire into the sac.  We have had cases under observation in which the treatment referred to has been followed by such an amount of improvement that the patient has been able to resume a laborious occupation for one or more years.  Christopher Heath found that improvement followed ligation of the left common carotid in aneurysm of the transverse part of the aortic arch.

[Illustration:  FIG. 74.—­Thoracic Aneurysm, threatening to rupture externally, but prevented from doing so by Macewen’s needling.  The needles were left in for forty-eight hours.]

#Abdominal Aneurysm.#—­Aneurysm is much less frequent in the abdominal than in the thoracic aorta.  While any of the large branches in the abdomen may be affected, the most common seats are in the aorta itself, just above the origin of the coeliac artery and at the bifurcation.