LONG-TERM SURVIVAL AFTER RUPTURED ABDOMINAL AORTIC-ANEURYSM

Despite technological improvement, surgery for ruptured aortic abdominal aneurysm (AAA) only gets about 50 % of patients to survive past the operative period. This series addresses the long-term outcome of those survivors. Eighty consecutive patients operated on for ruptured AAA between january 1983 and june 1990 at l'hopital du Saint-Sacrement by three vascular surgeons, were studied and compared to 279 patients submitted to elective aneurysm surgery during the same period. The operative mortalities were respectively of 45 % (ruptured) and 6,1 % (elective). Five year survivals added up to 30 and 68 %. When the 5 year survivals were recalculated, including only patients who were discharged from hospital, we found no statistically significant difference (p > 0.05) between the ruptured (55 %) and the elective groups (68 %). Data from this series demonstrate that long-term survival of patients undergoing ruptured AAA surgery is good and compares with that of AAA elective surgery. Therefore, aggressive treatment of ruptured AAA remains justified.