One surgeon's ten-year experience with abdominal aortic aneurysm surgery in smaller community hospitals

The results of one surgeon's 10-year experience with surgical treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms are reviewed. There were 64 elective operations, eight operations on expanding aneurysms, and 19 procedures done for frank rupture. The mortality rate was 4.2% for the nonruptured aneurysm group compared with 36.8% for those patients with rupture. It may be suggested from this study that surgical treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms can be done safely in low volume in smaller community hospitals and that such surgery need not be regionalized to larger institutions.