The fate of patients referred to a specialist vascular unit with large infra-renal abdominal aortic aneurysms over a two-year period.

Abstract

The basic premise in managing patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) must be to reduce overall mortality from the disease. Operative mortality is widely reported, but data on patients deemed unsuitable for repair are scarce. The purpose of the present study was to report the fate of patients referred with AAA, to define the proportion deemed unsuitable for surgery and to investigate the reasons for conservative treatment.