Ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms: a study of incidence and mortality

The incidence of ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) during 1980 in the Stockholm county and the clinical fate of the patients were evaluated. Eighty-eight patients with ruptured AAA were found, an incidence of 0.06 per thousand. The overall mortality was 94 per cent. Sixty-four patients reached hospital, twenty-three received a correct diagnosis; thirteen were operated upon and five survived. Autopsy or operation revealed that most ruptures were retroperitoneal (88 per cent) and that only two aneurysms (2 per cent) extended above the renal arteries. It is concluded that the high mortality rate following rupture is more dependent upon failure to operate than on operative mortality.