The Particulars: Patients who suffer a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) and make it to the hospital alive often undergo either open surgical repair or endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR). Data comparing survival rates following these procedures is lacking.

Data Breakdown: Researchers compared survival after AAA repair in 75 patients who underwent open surgery and 31 who received EVAR. Surgical patients had a 30-day mortality of 65%, compared with a 32% rate for EVAR patients. At 1 year, 12.5% of open surgery patients had survived, compared with 56.0% for those receiving EVAR. Most patients involved in the analysis died from co-existing conditions.

Take Home Pearl: Survival among patients with ruptured AAAs appears to be more significantly higher among EVAR recipients than those receiving open surgery.