Abdominal Aneurysm Surgery Studied

U.S. scientists conducting the largest study to date of abdominal aortic aneurysm surgeries found endovascular repair has the best outcomes.

The study led by Dr. Marc Schermerhorn, assistant professor of surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, and Harvard Medical School Associate Professor Bruce Landon focused on 45,000 Medicare patients who had been treated for abdominal aortic aneurysms, or AAA, in which a large vessel that supplies blood to a person’s abdomen, legs and pelvis swells to more than 50 percent its normal size.

The risk of AAA increases with age and is more common in men than women and more common in smokers or former smokers. If the aneurysm ruptures, most patients die before reaching a hospital, the researchers said.

The study’s findings suggest the endovascular procedure, compared with open surgery, has the best health outcomes for patients.

Ruptured AAA is the 10th leading cause of death in men over age 55 in the United States, with mortality of ruptured AAA exceeding 80 percent.

The results of the study appear in the New England Journal of Medicine.