Congenital abdominal aortic aneurysms in the young. Case report and review of the literature

Aneurysms of the aorta are rare in children and young adults. We report a case of a 19-year-old man with a saccular abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). No associated disorders were discovered in this patient. The aneurysm was resected and a Dacron aortic graft was implanted. Nine years after operation the patient was in good health without evidence of other aneurysms. Thirty-two cases of probable congenital abdominal aortic aneurysms were collected from the literature. In 19 cases, the cause of aneurysm was not ascertained. We identified two groups of patients with probably congenital AAAs: type I congenital AAA, in which there is a generalized disorder of the arterial tissue and usually aneurysms are present in other areas and type II congenital AAA, in which there is a localized defect of the abdominal aorta, without aneurysms in other areas. We speculate that a congenital defect localized to the wall of the abdominal aorta was the cause of the aneurysm in this patient (type II congenital AAA).