Thoracic aortic aneurysm historical perspective

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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]; Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief:

Historical Perspective

Discovery

• Aneurysma, aneurysmos … the etymologic roots of Latin and Greek origin, meaning widening or dilation, form the foundation of the modern day word aneurysm.
• Today, the term aneurysm applied in its most strict sense describes a blood vessel one and a half times the diameter of age matched individuals, with loss of vessel wall parallelism.
• Vessels of less dilation are described as ectatic, derived from the Greek origin ektasis, or to stretch out.
• The first documented description of aortic pathology appears circa 1550 BC.
• Over the following three and a half millennia, our understanding of aortic aneurysms has progressed from a mystical and uniformly lethal disease process to one that focuses on preventative intervention and minimally invasive, even percutaneous, repair.