Surgical Treatment of Inflammatory Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms: A Long-Term Follow-up of 19 Patients

The prevalence of inflammatory abdominal aortic aneurysms (IAAA) in autopsy material ranges between 2.5 and 10% of all aneurysms. Clinical findings, the distinction between inflammatory and degenerative aneurysms, and epidemiological data are uncertain, and only a few long-term follow-up studies of patients after surgical treatment of IAAAs exist. In this study, 19 patients underwent either emergency or elective surgery for IAAA during the 10-year period between 1983 and 1993 at Helsinki University Central Hospital. Demographics, symptoms, and operative and follow-up data were collected retrospectively with emphasis on the long-term outcome of IAAA. Causes of late death were available from hospital records and the central statistical office of Finland. For survival analysis we compared ruptured versus nonruptured and emergency versus elective cases of IAAAs. Mean follow-up for the 18 surviving patients (1 hospital death) was 7.4 years. One patient (5%) died of a long-term complication of the aneurysmal disease. There was no statistically significant difference in survival rates for emergency versus elective surgery cases or ruptured versus nonruptured aneurysms. The most common cause of late death was myocardial infarction. The hospital stay mortality (5%) and morbidity (31%), and the survival rate of 26% at 5 years for ruptured and 65% and 43% for nonruptured IAAAs at 5 years and 10 years, respectively, are comparable to normal AAA survival rates. These findings show that surgery is recommended, especially as ruptures also occur in this subgroup of aneurysms.