Renal artery aneurysms: diagnosis, management and outcomes

Renal artery aneurysms are an uncommon vascular entity and are more likely to affect younger patients without significant atherosclerotic risk factors as compared to patients with renal artery occlusive disease. Hypertension is a commonly associated disease and the renal artery aneurysm may be causal, exclusive of renal artery occlusive disease. Diagnosis is often made incidentally but arteriography is essential for good operative planning. The main complication of RAA is rupture, which is increased in peripartum females. Operative therapy is primarily in situ aneurysmectomy and angioplastic closure or exclusion and bypass, usually with autologous conduit. It is currently recommended that in good operative risk patients, repair is recommended for RAA >1.0 cm when hypertension present and RAA >1.5 to 2.0 cm when no hypertension present. Given the anatomic complexity of these lesions, little role for endovascular therapy is forecast.