Symptoms and Complications
Aneurysms often cause no pain. Often, they're detected accidentally in body scans. The most likely way you will notice a cerebral, thoracic, or abdominal aneurysm is if it grows big enough to press against nerve-bearing tissue. Unfortunately, this means the aneurysm has grown recently, so the warning comes late. Fast-growing aneurysms are the ones most likely to rupture. Even large aneurysms often cause no symptoms.
Cerebral (brain) aneurysms occasionally cause some of these symptoms as they start to swell:
- double vision
- facial pain
- loss of vision
- severe headaches from minor bleeding
- squinting
- tremors or uncontrollable movement of an eye or eyelid
With thoracic aneurysms, symptoms are rare but may include:
- chest pain, upper back pain, or both
- coughing-up of blood
- difficulty swallowing
- hoarseness
- Horner's syndrome - drooping eyelid, absence of sweating on one side of the face
- wheezing
Abdominal aneurysms are more likely to cause symptoms that:
- pulsate in the abdomen
- cause upper abdominal pain, severe lower back pain, or both
The symptom of a ruptured abdominal aneurysm is intense pain and tenderness in the stomach or lower back area. Thoracic aneurysms cause excruciating pain in the upper chest that spreads to the back and sometimes down the trunk. Blood loss and failure of vital organs such as the kidneys can lead to fatal consequences in cases of thoracic and abdominal aneurysms. Ruptured cerebral aneurysms cause a hemorrhagic stroke, with all of its symptoms.