[Bacterial infections of the abdominal aorta]

There is a high mortality of bacterial aortitis particularly as it is usually not recognized before the stage of rupture. Therefore the disease should early be considered in obscure febrile conditions. Problems of diagnosis and therapy are discussed on two own cases. A 63-year old man had a rupture of a small infrarenal aortic aneurysm in the course of salmonella sepsis, a 79-year old woman had a pyogenic osteomyelitis of a lumbar vertebra that spread to the aorta and caused its rupture. In both cases surgical treatment consisted of bleeding control followed by in-situ reconstruction.