New developments in the treatment of ruptured AAA.

Ruptured Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms (rAAA) represent the most common abdominal aortic emergency with an incidence of 6.3 per 100,000 inhabitants whereas the incidence of rAAA in the population over 65 years was 35.5/100.000 inhabitants. Early suspicion and diagnosis of rAAA is essential for good outcomes and over the past decades a great variety of perioperative management concepts, techniques and materials have been implemented to further improve the outcomes of this acute and life-threatening disease. Corner-stones for the improvement of outcomes include the introduction of management protocols for rAAA, the principle of hypotensive hemostasis and the introduction of endovascular techniques as well as the improved anesthesia and postoperative intensive care therapy with early identification and management of devastating complications such as the abdominal compartment syndrome. While the role of endovascular aortic repair in rAAA is not yet answered, it appears to be very promising especially in the presence of new techniques that could resolve a number of the problems restricting success of EVAR in rAAAs.