Abdominal aortic aneurysms. Risk factors and complications and their influence on indication for operation

From January 1982 to June 1986 475 patients underwent operation for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) with reconstruction by tube graft or bifurcation graft. Patients were subdivided into 2 groups, those operated upon either electively or those operated upon urgently. The overall hospital mortality following elective intervention was 4.9%, following emergency intervention 36.5%. In patients operated upon electively preoperative risk factors such as history of myocardial infarction or coronary artery disease did not influence mortality. In patients operated upon urgently, however, the postoperative mortality was significantly higher (p less than 0.005) in those with a history of myocardial infarction or coronary artery disease. Postoperative morbidity in the emergency group (2.7 complications per patient) was significantly higher than in the elective group (0.94 complications per patient). These results show that early elective operation on asymptomatic aneurysms and younger patients with few risk factors can prevent rupture and reduce postoperative mortality to an acceptable level.