[Arteriosclerosis and aneurysms of the abdominal aorta]

To substantiate the hypothesis of a non atherosclerotic origin of abdominal aortic aneurysms, the author compares 40 patients operated on for abdominal aneurysm vs 50 patients operated on for atherosclerotic aorto-iliac occlusive disease at the 1st Surgical Clinic of the University of Cagliari. The mean age of the aneurysm patients was greater than that of the patients with occlusive disease and symptoms of arterial insufficiency of the lower limbs were uncommon. The more statistically significant feature was the difference in the site of lesions: in the aneurysm group, in fact, iliac arteries were uninvolved in 30% of patients, while in the occlusive group lesion involved the iliac tree in all but one case. Furthermore the majority of aneurysm patients showed an undamaged distal vascular bed, in sharp contrast with the occlusive group. Despite of these differences, however, the present series is too small to allow firm conclusions: in consideration of the equality of associate diseases and of lipoprotein patterns between the two groups of patients, abdominal aortic aneurysm and aortoiliac occlusive disease seem to be rather different manifestations of atherosclerosis than really dissimilar diseases.