What sort of problem is an abdominal aortic aneurysm?

Dilation: It is a swelling or dilation of a vessel due to weakness in the wall of the vessel (aorta). The concern is the risk for rupture, which can cause severe pain and massive bleeding.

Treatable: In addition to dr. Frederick shieh's answer, you should enter a vascular monitoring program with your doctor and vascular surgeon, if you have a aaa, abdominal aortic aneurysm. With monitoring and agressive medical therapy your AAA can be managed and treated with less risk for poor outcome/rupture. There are newer interventions for AAA and really good medical therapies.

AAA: The most important part of this problem is identifying the aneurysm early. By monitoring the size in a serial fashion you should be able to have it repaired before it ruptures. In this fashion you avoid the life threatening situation of a ruptured aneurysm.