Screening men for aortic aneurysm.
Abdominal aortic aneurysm is a potentially lethal condition, much more common in older men, and often first recognised only after rupture and death. Some 75 per cent of patients the before arriving at hospital and, of the survivors, half make it to the operating theatre. The operative mortality for ruptured aneurysm remains about 40 per cent at 30 days, compared with a mortality of between 5 and 6 per cent for elective surgery.