A Large Surgical Registry for Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms (AAA)

Currently, little is known about who receives which type of surgery. What data are available are largely from single-centre studies, with study populations of a few hundred to a thousand patients, comparing outcomes for open and endovascular repair and collecting patient characteristic data largely for risk adjustment. Data on endovascular vs open AAA repair from the population-based registry will provide important information regarding the current use of these two treatment strategies, as well as allowing comparison of long-term outcomes for each according to different patient characteristics.

The proposed registry has the potential to provide means for internal quality assessment for the participating institutions. The de-identified registry will be made available to researchers at their request. This registry, focusing on AAA in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, will provide data with the potential to improve treatments for more than 800,000 patients in the US.

Inclusion criteria

• Men and women who received endovascular or open AAA repair (primary/secondary procedure codes: ICD-9=38.44 for open, ICD-9=39.71 for endovascular repair) at any of the 138 Dallas-Fort Worth area hospitals that report AAA data to the DFWHC Data Initiative.
• patients age 50 years old or older.

Exclusion criteria

• Patients with HIV and substance abuse
• Patients with substance abuse
• Patients > 50 years old