Skip to main content
PMC home page
The BMJ logoLink to The BMJ
. 1989 Jan 7;298(6665):33–35. doi: 10.1136/bmj.298.6665.33

Increasing incidence of aortic aneurysms in England and Wales.

F G Fowkes 1, C C Macintyre 1, C V Ruckley 1
PMCID: PMC1835383  PMID: 2492850

Abstract

The numbers of patients being admitted to hospital with aortic aneurysms have increased recently. A study was carried out to try to find out whether this was a true increase in incidence or whether it could be attributable to more accurate diagnosis and better surgical techniques. From analyses of routine statistics it was found that from 1950 to 1984 age standardised mortality rose 20-fold in men to 47.1 per 100,000 population and 11-fold in women to 22.2 per 100,000 and that this was mainly due to more deaths from abdominal aneurysms. Hospital admissions of men with abdominal aneurysms were found to have increased steadily from 1968 to 1983, but the increase for women admitted did not begin until 1978. An increase in both emergency and elective admissions and only a marginal fall in deaths in hospital (from 45% to 39%) suggest that admissions for abdominal aneurysms increased across a wide range of severity of disease. It is concluded for the following reasons that the true incidence of aortic aneurysms, particularly abdominal aneurysms, has been increasing in England and Wales: the trends are not wholly compatible with advances in diagnosis and surgery, there are inconsistencies by age and sex, and increases have occurred in the number of complicated as well as uncomplicated cases.

Full text

PDF
35

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Allen P. I., Gourevitch D., McKinley J., Tudway D., Goldman M. Population screening for aortic aneurysms. Lancet. 1987 Sep 26;2(8561):736–736. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(87)91090-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Armour R. H. Survivors of ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm: the iceberg's tip. Br Med J. 1977 Oct 22;2(6094):1055–1057. doi: 10.1136/bmj.2.6094.1055. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Castleden W. M., Mercer J. C. Abdominal aortic aneurysms in Western Australia: descriptive epidemiology and patterns of rupture. Br J Surg. 1985 Feb;72(2):109–112. doi: 10.1002/bjs.1800720213. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Collin J., Araujo L., Walton J., Lindsell D. Oxford screening programme for abdominal aortic aneurysm in men aged 65 to 74 years. Lancet. 1988 Sep 10;2(8611):613–615. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(88)90649-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Collin J. Elective surgery for small abdominal aortic aneurysms. Lancet. 1987 Apr 18;1(8538):909–909. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(87)92872-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Gore I., Hirst A. E., Jr Arteriosclerotic aneurysms of the abdominal aorta: a review. Prog Cardiovasc Dis. 1973 Sep-Oct;16(2):113–150. doi: 10.1016/s0033-0620(73)80011-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Hopkins N. F. Abdominal aortic aneurysms. Br Med J (Clin Res Ed) 1987 Mar 28;294(6575):790–791. doi: 10.1136/bmj.294.6575.790. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Ingoldby C. J., Wujanto R., Mitchell J. E. Impact of vascular surgery on community mortality from ruptured aortic aneurysms. Br J Surg. 1986 Jul;73(7):551–553. doi: 10.1002/bjs.1800730711. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Jenkins A. M., Ruckley C. V., Nolan B. Ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm. Br J Surg. 1986 May;73(5):395–398. doi: 10.1002/bjs.1800730528. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. MANIGLIA R., GREGORY J. E. Increasing incidence of arteriosclerotic aortic aneurysms; analysis of six thousand autopsies. AMA Arch Pathol. 1952 Sep;54(3):298–305. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Melton L. J., 3rd, Bickerstaff L. K., Hollier L. H., Van Peenen H. J., Lie J. T., Pairolero P. C., Cherry K. J., O'Fallon W. M. Changing incidence of abdominal aortic aneurysms: a population-based study. Am J Epidemiol. 1984 Sep;120(3):379–386. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a113902. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Naylor A. R., Webb J., Fowkes F. G., Ruckley C. V. Trends in abdominal aortic aneurysm surgery in Scotland (1971-1984). Eur J Vasc Surg. 1988 Aug;2(4):217–221. doi: 10.1016/s0950-821x(88)80029-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Talbot S., Langman M. J. Epidemiological features of ruptured dissecting and saccular aortic aneurysms. Postgrad Med J. 1972 Jul;48(561):414–416. doi: 10.1136/pgmj.48.561.414. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Vascular Surgical Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Meeting. London, 28-29 November 1985. Abstracts. Br J Surg. 1986 Apr;73(4):318–323. doi: 10.1002/bjs.1800730423. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from BMJ : British Medical Journal are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES