QUALITY-OF-LIFE FOLLOWING REPAIR OF RUPTURED AND ELECTIVE ABDOMINAL AORTIC-ANEURYSMS

Objective. To find out whether patients undergoing repair of ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) had more emotional problems and limit ations of lifestyle than those listed for elective resection. Design: Retrospective study. Setting: Teaching hospital, fire. Subjects: 28 pa tients, 14 in each group, matched for age, sex, duration of stay in th e intensive care unit (ICU), hospital stay postoperatively, and length of time since operation. Interventions: Application of structured que stionnaire. Main outcome measures: Emotional problems, mobility, activ ities of daily living, ability to sleep, degree of psychological stres s, presence of symptoms, and Rosser index to measure quality of life ( QoL). Results: There were no significant differences between the group s in any measure. Conclusions: Patients have few emotional difficultie s or disturbances of QoL after emergency or elective repair of AAA. Su rvivors after repair of ruptured AAA can expect as good a quality of l ife as those operated on electively. These results support an aggressi ve approach to the treatment of ruptured AAA.