Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a common degenerative connective tissue disorder with a strong genetic basis potentiated by cigarette smoking and hypertension and affecting predominantly old men. The disease is usually asymptomatic until it causes death by rupture, so most patients remain undiagnosed. A strong case can be made for screening all men aged 65 years, and the first-degree male relatives of known patients should be offered ultrasound screening every 5 years from the age of 50. Both the quantity and quality of surgical care currently provided in the United Kingdom and elsewhere vary enormously, and there are good grounds for encouraging the referral of all patients with aortic aneurysms to specialist vascular surgical units. Elective surgical resection of aneurysms over 4.0 cm in diameter offers most patients the best chance of survival for more than a year provided the operative mortality rate is under 5 %. For patients with smaller aneurysms there is the prospect that specific drug therapy may soon be available to reduce the growth rate of their aneurysms and perhaps the need for surgery in the future.

Keywords:
Aortic aneurysm, Aorta, abdominal
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© 1990 S. Karger AG, Basel
1990
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