SCREENING OF THE ABDOMINAL AORTIC ANEURYSM: COST-EFFECTIVENESS AND HEALTH BENEFITS

The abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a nosological entity whose main complication is rupture, being associated with a high mortality rate. The early identification of this pathology in groups at risk through an ultrasound screening program can have benefits based on elective surgical repair before the rupture occurs, preventing death. In Portugal, no screening program for this aneurysm is implemented. Our goal is to review the impact of screening among risk groups on the global and aneurysm-related mortality rates, quality of life, cost-effectiveness and its applicability in Portugal.

We performed a narrative review of the literature on screening for AAA.

There is evidence that screening is effective in reducing aneurysm-related mortality in men aged 65 and over, but not in reducing overall mortality. In addition, the implementation of a screening program in several countries appears to be cost-effective in at-risk populations. Discusssion and conclusion: Data from epidemiological studies on AAA suggests that the implementation of an AAA screening program, based on ultrasound, in men aged 65 and over, can bring health benefits and be cost-effective. Even so, taking into account that all the studies took place outside Portugal, the possibility of generalizing the results to the portuguese population is not clear.