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 limitations of lifestyle than those listed for elective resection. Design: Retrospective study Setting: Teaching hospital, Eire. Subjects: 28 patients, 14 in each group, matched for age, sex, duration of stay in the intensive care unit (ICU), hospital stay postoperatively, and length of time since operation. Interventions: Application of structured questionnaire. Main outcome measures: Emotional problems, mobility, activities of daily living, ability to sleep, degree of psychological stress, presence of symptoms, and Rosser index to measure quality of life (QoL). Results: There were no significant differences between the groups in any measure. Conclusions: Patients have few emotional difficulties or disturbances of QoL after emergency or elective repair of AAA. Survivors after repair of ruptured AAA can expect as good a quality of life as those operated on electively. These results support an aggressive approach to the treatment of ruptured AAA.