Background: Increased incidence of AAA has been observed all over the world, partly due to the prolongation of human life span. Deaths due to AAA rupture are rare below 55 years of age, but the
mortality increases rapidly in the older age groups.Material/Methods: The causes of death of 59 patients (9 females and 50 males) aged 45-83. Preoperative risk factors were present predominantly in the 51-70 age group patients (mean age.65.3+/-8.1) operated on for abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) on a scheduled (15 patients), pre-term (17) and emergency basis because of aneurysm rupture (27) in the Chair and Department of General and Vascular Surgery, Medical University of Bydgoszcz in 1992-1997.Results: The 59 analyzed deaths account for 33.5 % of the total number of 176 patients operated on at that time. Women constituted 18.2 % of the total number of patients subjected to surgical procedures. However, no increase of AAA incidence among women was observed during the analyzed period, with obstructive pulmonary disease occurring mainly in patients over 70 years of age. The age of patients operated on because of AAA ruptures was found to be significantly higher -73.3 lata. Among 33 patients who underwent emergency surgeries, 27 (81.8 %) died, mainly due to hemorrhagic shock, 15 patients (13.3%) died after scheduled surgeries, most frequently as a result of multiorgan failure due to septic shock. Among 17 patients whodied after being operated on earlier than scheduled (56.7 %) coagulopathies were the main cause of mortality.Conclusions: No correlations between preoperative risk factors and mortality were found in the analyzed material. There was, however, a strong correlation between mortality and the duration of surgical procedures.

Keywords: abdominal aortic surgery, Mortality