ABSTRACT
The understanding of endoleaks and their management is critically important in the endovascular repair of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). The goal of all elective AAA treatments is to protect the patient from the life-threatening potential of aneurysm rupture and resultant hemorrhage. Thus an endovascular prosthesis can eliminate the potential for such hemorrhage if it succeeds in achieving total exclusion of circulation within the aneurysm. This dichotomous view of success, either the AAA has no circulation within the sac or it has circulation, was held to be the primary criterion of treatment success in the early days of endografts.
