Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm

Infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm is generally considered to be a serious disorder. Early studies of patients with abdominal aortic aneurysm by Estes¹ and by Wright and associates² indicated that death occurred unpredictably in about half the patients within a year of diagnosis, in 90 percent within 5 years, and in all patients in less than 10 years. Death was caused by rupture in 63 percent of the patients described by Estes and in 95 percent of those described by Wright and colleagues. Later, Szilagyi and associates reviewed the outcomes of 138 patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms treated without operation because…