RUPTURED ABDOMINAL AORTIC-ANEURYSMS - MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY-RATES IN 80 CONSECUTIVE CASES

A study of 80 patients with ruptured aortic aneurysms and admitted ove r an eight-year period to the Intensive Care Unit of the authors' hosp ital was undertaken. All the information was introduced to a data base and processed for statistical treatment by use of a software program. Most patients admitted to the emergency room presented diffuse or loc alized abdominal pain. An abdominal mass was present in 40% of the cas es. Hypotension was usually present with shock in 20% of the patients. The diagnosis was confirmed essentially by computerized axial tomogra phy. In 27% of the patients, operation was undertaken based on clinica l grounds only. Sixty-seven percent of the patients showed one or more complications. Acute renal failure (51%), sepsis (31%), acute respira tory insufficiency (20%), mesenteric ischemia (13%), coagulopathy (11% ), and neurologic complications (11%) were the most often encountered. The mortality rate was 42.5%; shock was the most common cause of deat h, and mesenteric ischemia was the second.