Abdominal aortic aneurysm--results of treatment in nonspecialized units

A retrospective study was made of the management of abdominal aortic aneurysms in eight district general hospitals in Sweden in the period 1971-1980. The numbers of admitted cases rose steadily during these ten years, as did the numbers of operations. Most of the patients had ruptured aneurysm, though there was a manifold rise in the number of operations for asymptomatic aneurysm. The postoperative mortality increased with the level of emergency presented by the aneurysm symptoms, and was about 80% in patients with clinical shock. The results of operative treatment were essentially stable during the study period and they appeared to be similar to those obtained in patients referred to units specializing in vascular surgery. Patient age, preoperative recognition of the diagnosis, concomitance of complicating disease and magnitude of peroperative blood loss seemed to influence the results of surgery. Postoperative deaths tended to occur in the first few days and to be independent of the volume of transfused blood, although severe bleeding was a significant and often fatal postoperative complication.