Survivors of ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm: the iceberg's tip.

In four and a half years 25 patients in one community suffered a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm. Eleven died at home, nine died without operation in hospital, and only five had the aneurysm removed. There were four survivors. A further seven patients might have lived had they had a prompt operation. The average operative mortality for ruptured aneurysms among series reported in British journals is 53%, but the survivors are a small minority of the total number of people in the community whose aneurysms rupture. No basis could be found for the view that replacing an aortic aneurysm with a straight graft (while leaving behind aneurysmal common iliac arteries) lowers the operative mortality. On the contrary, oversimplifying the operation may be hazardous.