Impact of vascular surgery on community mortality from ruptured aortic aneurysms

The workload of aortic surgery in a district increased fourfold over 10 years as the incidence of aneurysm rupture rose from 7 to 17/100,000. Of 260 patients with ruptured aneurysms 101 reached hospital alive (38 per cent) of which 52 (52 per cent) survived, an overall survival rate of 19.8 per cent. Despite increasing experience, mortality after emergency surgery did not improve, suggesting outcome was largely determined by the patient's condition and age. Only 5 of 90 patients aged over 75 survived aortic rupture at home. In consequence overall community mortality did not improve in the period studied. Survival after elective surgery was 95 per cent, suggesting that efforts to improve survival should be directed towards identifying and treating the disease before rupture occurs. The commonly stated figure of 50 per cent survival for ruptured aortic aneurysms is an overestimate, due to neglect of patients dying at home.