Low mortality and morbidity after endovascular repair of ruptured aortic aneurysm

The objective of this study was to describe the implementation and to evaluate the short-term outcome of the first Danish experience with endovascular repair of ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm (RAAA).

This was a historical prospective cohort study including all patients at Odense University Hospital, Denmark, treated for RAAA and/or iliac artery aneurysm rupture from 1 October 2012 to December 2013.

A total of 53 patients were treated due to RAAA or iliac aneurysms at our institution in this period. Twenty-seven (51%) of these patients were treated with endovascular aneurysm repair and 26 (49%) with open repair. Two patients (7%) died within the first 30 days post-operatively in the endovascular group. One patient died perioperatively due to myocardial infarction verified by autopsy. The other patient died due to massive coagulopathy and multiorgan failure shortly after the procedure. In the group with open repair, seven patients (30.7%) died within 30 days. This yields a mortality of all patients treated for rupture at our institution of 19% compared with 32% in Denmark at large.

Endovascular treatment of RAAA is feasible, and the overall post-operative mortality and morbidity of RAAA can probably be reduced by implementation of RAAA.