Symptomatic abdominal aortic aneurysm misdiagnosed as nephroureterolithiasis.

From January 1977 through December 1986, 134 patients with symptomatic AAAs were examined in the emergency room; 24 patients (mean age 72.4 years) had an initial misdiagnosis of "nephrolithiasis." Ten patients had the correct diagnosis of a ruptured AAA established within five hours of the initial examination and were promptly taken to surgery. Fourteen patients had delay greater than five hours while extensive diagnostic evaluations were performed (intravenous pyelograms in 12, computerized tomographic scans in 7, ultrasonography in 6). All patients underwent emergency surgery and six patients operated upon within five hours of initial examination survived. All patients who had extensive diagnostic evaluation lasting more than five hours died. The only diagnostic procedure that definitively established a ruptured aneurysm in all cases was the CT scan. In patients with confusing physical and laboratory findings but in whom the diagnosis of a ruptured AAA is entertained, an emergency CT scan is recommended as the diagnostic procedure of choice.