SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) – WTOC’s Dawn Baker visited Memorial Health for the Welcome to Our Community show. She was joined by two vascular surgeons, Dr. Larry Horesh and Dr. Jerry Cohn.
Dr. Larry Horesh and Dr. Jerry Cohn discussed aneurysms and their impact.
“If they get to a certain size, they can actually threaten people’s lives,” Cohn said.
Risk factors and screening
About 10,000 aneurysm ruptures occur per year, according to Horesh. The majority of repairs are performed with special stents that have become more specific for complicated aneurysms.
The doctors we spoke with said there are no external physical signs of aneurysms, so people must know their risk factors.
“So it’s really asking your doctor to screen you is the primary method of identifying it, because there are no external physical signs of an aneurysm.”
They said all smokers should be screened for aneurysms once they reach age 65. Aneurysms also run in families, so people with first-degree family members who had aneurysms should be screened, noted the vascular surgeons we spoke with.
“If you’re first degree, your mother or your father had an aneurysm or died for an aneurysm, that might be an indication, especially if you have high blood pressure that’s not well controlled or a long history of smoking.”
Treatment advances
“Innovation of technology has allowed us really to reconstruct very complicated aneurysms with multiple branches from within a catheter that’s delivered through the femoral artery or the groin, which allows very quick recovery, return to active quality of life quicker, less morbidity, and less mortality.”
Memorial Hospital has helped purchase special stents to perform more complex surgeries, according to the doctors.
Prevention and monitoring
Doctors we spoke to said smoking is the biggest risk factor for aneurysms.
“If they have a smoking habit, they really need to stop. And then if they have risk factors that are identified, family risk factors, or people that would be smokers with high blood pressure, particularly for some time, they should really seek out from their primary physician screening and imaging, and then we’ll know.”
The majority of Americans with aneurysms live full and healthy lives without the condition threatening them, according to the doctors we spoke with.
“It’s important to know that if you find that you have an aneurysm, you don’t need to lay awake at night wondering if the next heartbeat will end your life,” Cohn said.
Copyright 2025 WTOC. All rights reserved.
