Not long ago, Deng Xi, the brother of the late superstar Teresa Teng and CEO of the Teresa Teng Cultural and Educational Foundation, was pronounced dead at the age of 54 in Shanghai after more than 10 hours of emergency treatment due to a ruptured aortic aneurysm in his abdomen that led to massive bleeding. Other people who have been taken ill by the same disease in history include American volleyball player Hyman and physicist Albert Einstein. Before the onset of aortic aneurysm, many patients are asymptomatic, and the aneurysm suddenly ruptures resulting in death by hemorrhage. Foreign literature reports that the overall mortality rate of aortic aneurysm is as high as 70% ~ 77%, once the aneurysm rupture, 24-hour survival rate of only 50%, 6 days after the survival rate of 30%, 6 weeks after the survival rate of only 10%, which is sufficient to see the condition of the menace. Now, this “ticking time bomb” appears more in patients with atherosclerosis and hypertension, how to effectively prevent, timely treatment, and remove the “bomb”, which has aroused the attention of cardiovascular disease experts. Recently, in 2008 China Vascular Forum, vascular disease experts on the worsening peripheral vascular disease to the high-risk groups to sound the alarm: aortic aneurysm onset of acute, low survival rate after the onset of the disease, and the incidence rate has been a significant upward trend in recent years. Early diagnosis, early detection, and surgery before rupture of the tumor are the only way to remove the “bomb” and gain a chance of life. Experts also pointed out that China’s endoluminal therapy is still in the primary stage, and the country needs to strengthen the training of endoluminal therapy physicians. Aortic aneurysm is caused by localized bulging and dilatation of the blood vessel wall. When the diameter of the dilated blood vessel exceeds twice the diameter of the normal aorta, it is called an aortic aneurysm. Over time, under the influence of various factors such as hypertension, heredity, trauma, infection or other damage to the arterial wall, the arterial wall becomes increasingly weak and suddenly ruptures, resulting in sudden death of the patient. Aortic aneurysms are divided into thoracic aortic aneurysms and abdominal aortic aneurysms according to the location of the disease. Thoracic aortic aneurysm is further divided into true aneurysm and intercalated aneurysm; abdominal aortic aneurysm is further divided into abdominal aneurysm and iliac aneurysm. Patients with atherosclerosis and hypertension are the high-risk group of aortic aneurysm. According to statistics, about 80%~90% of patients with entrapment aneurysm have hypertension, and most of them have had a history of high blood pressure for 10~15 years at the time of the onset of the disease. In China, it is estimated that there are about 100,000 patients with thoracic aortic aneurysms and 300,000 patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms, the professor said. In China, there is no complete epidemiologic information so far, and the incidence of aortic aneurysm is much higher than abroad in China because of the high incidence of hypertension and many patients do not receive timely and effective control and treatment. Most aneurysms are asymptomatic before rupture, and some patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms can palpate a pulsatile mass, which is not easily detected in obese people. According to the amount of existing patients and the number of cases treated every year, less than one in a thousand patients are treated now. Therefore, it is particularly important to raise awareness of aortic disease among the general public and more clinicians. The professor appealed, “Pay attention to the aorta, take care of the main line of blood transportation in the human body, and avoid the regrets left in life due to inadvertence.” While arterial hemangioma is scary, what is even scarier is the neglect of the disease. For people at high risk of arterial hemangioma, especially patients with atherosclerosis and hypertension, in addition to regularly taking antihypertensive drugs and lipid-lowering drugs to maintain blood pressure and blood lipids at normal levels, they should also go to the hospital for regular checkups to proactively prevent and detect aortic aneurysms. As long as the correct understanding and early treatment, the “untimely bomb” in the body can be removed in time. So far, there is no effective drug for treating aneurysm. Once diagnosed, surgery is the only effective way to prevent aneurysm rupture and save lives. Aneurysms used to be incurable due to the lack of suitable vascular substitutes. Prof. Chen Zhong of Beijing Anzhen Hospital introduced endoluminal repair as a new minimally invasive surgery after artificial blood vessel replacement. Compared with artificial blood vessel replacement, endoluminal repair is less traumatic, less bleeding, and quicker postoperative recovery, which brings a good news to those aneurysm patients who cannot tolerate surgery. In endoluminal repair, the aortic coated stent is the key to the outcome of the procedure. The world’s first endoluminal treatment for abdominal aortic aneurysm was performed by Argentinean vascular surgeon Parodi in 1991, and endoluminal vascular surgery techniques have become more and more sophisticated with the emergence of new technologies. in the late 1990’s, domestic vascular surgeons began to introduce advanced foreign technologies to China, such as the Valiant thoracic aortic stenting system and the Talent abdominal stenting system, which have been used to treat aortic aneurysm patients with aortic aneurysms. stent system, which provided a new, minimally invasive approach for aortic aneurysm patients in addition to conventional surgical vascular repair. However, the number of endoluminal surgeons in China is not encouraging: in 2002, there were only about 10 surgeons who could perform diagnostic treatments, but today there are more than 300; and the number of surgeons who can perform minimally invasive endoluminal surgery on their own has grown from five in 2002 to more than 100 today. The professor said, “China has now gradually established the standardized operation of endoluminal treatment and created a professional team to carry out endoluminal treatment, which makes the treatment mode of vascular surgical diseases in China enter a brand new stage where traditional surgery and endoluminal surgery coexist.” However, he also said that considering the size of China’s population, China’s current endoluminal therapy physician force still lags behind that of developed countries, “The diagnosis and treatment of aneurysms is still in the early stage of development, and there is still a long way to go to improve the diagnosis rate and train more operators to serve more patients.”