Assessment of timely detection of abdominal aortic aneurysm in Serbian population based on the data from Serbvasc registry of operated patients

Abstract

Introduction Screening of males over 65 years of age for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) has been proved effective in some countries. The incidence of AAA in Serbian population has not been evaluated yet. The aim of the study was to assess the ratio between elective and urgently operated patients with AAA and to estimate hospital incidence of treated AAA based on the population of 100 000 inhabitants. Methods Data were obtained from Vascular surgery registry - Serbvasc which has been created by 17 institutions. Data containing demographic characteristics were obtained from the publication of the Statistical office of the Republic of Serbia. For statistical analysis, the methods of descriptive statistics were used and the values were expressed per 100 000 inhabitants. Results During the year 2021, 422 operations were performed in 7 hospitals due to asymptomatic, symptomatic and ruptured AAA in 323 (76,54%), 37(8,76%) and 62 (14,69%) patients, respectively. Hospital incidence of electively operated AAA is 8,06 cases per 100 000 inhabitants, whereas the incidence of operated ruptured AAA is 1,55 cases per 100 000 inhabitants. Overall hospital incidence of all operatively treated AAA is 10,53 cases per 100 000 inhabitants. Out of the total number of operated patients with AAA, 134 (31,75%) were younger than 65 years, while 22 (35%) out of 62 patients treated for rAAA, where younger than 65 years. Conclusion The incidence of operatively treated elective AAA is lower than the values reported in literature, while the rate of ruptured AAA is more than twice as high as the rate reported by recent papers. One third of treated patients were younger than 65 years. The most efficient strategy for reducing the number of urgently treated AAA is the implementation of screening for AAA in groups with higher risk.