Santa has an abdominal aortic aneurysm. Sad I know, but what with his lifestyle of inactivity and indulgence he has brought it upon himself, and after all, he does have all the risk factors.
He’s a fat, old man who does very little all year and then has one night of unbelievable stress that puts his already high blood pressure through the roof. You don’t see them often but he has insanely long fingers, it’s how he reaches down the chimney to deliver the presents. These long fingers are due to his diagnosis of Marfan’s, and he always wears his big black boots to keep his feet warm because his peripheral artery disease makes his feet very chilly when he’s flying over the Baltic States. You probably also didn’t realise but his mum and dad both died of abdominal aortic aneurysms and he is now destined to the same fate.
The risk factors for an abdominal aortic aneurysm are important when you see a patient with abdominal pain, especially if the pain was sudden in onset.
– male
– age over 60
– family history of AAA
– Marfans disease
– artery disease
– hypertension
– obesity
– diabetes
poor guy
unicyclemedic 