ABDOMINAL AORTIC-ANEURYSM - 10 YEARS HOSPITAL POPULATION STUDY IN THE CITY OF GLASGOW

The study comprised 2936 cases of aortic aneurysm admitted to Glasgow City hospitals between January 1980 and December 1989. Information was first obtained from Scottish Morbidity Records 1 (SMR1), Scottish Hospital Inpatients Statistics, the accuracy of which was assessed by detailed inspection of 500 case notes, evenly distributed throughout the study period. The data from 489 of the 500 case notes examined matched the SMR1 data which was therefore accurate in 97.8% of cases. Of the 2936 cases, 852 (29%) had more than one admission with the same diagnosis in the same year and of the remaining 2084 cases 169 (8.1 %) were thoracic aneurysms. After correction for these findings, 1915 abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) were left for the study. Of these, 618 (32.3%) were females giving a male to female approximate ratio of 2:1 which remained constant for each year of the study. The mean age of the study population increased from 70.3 years in 1980 to 72.3 years in 1989 with an overall mean of 71.2 years. There was a significant increase in the percentage of patients over the age of 75 years (from 17.4% in 1980 to 28.8% in 1989). Twenty-seven per cent of the cases (519 of 1915) were ruptured aneurysms. This was again stable for the 10 years of the study. Analysis of hospital mortality suggested better outcomes, both for ruptured and non-ruptured aneurysms, in the purely vascular unit of Glasgow as opposed to other surgical units in the city. The possible significance of this finding is discussed. Allowing for improved diagnostic techniques and clinical awareness of the disease, the figures suggest an increase in the incidence of AAA in the Glasgow area. © 1993 Grune & Stratton Ltd.