Perceived Risk of Pre-operative Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Rupture as a Result of Pulmonary Function Testing: All Blown Out of Proportion?

As a result of a significant risk of rupture with increasing infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) diameter, current guidelines recommend consideration of elective repair in patients whose AAA is ≥ 5.5 cm (with a suggested lower threshold for female patients), symptomatic, or growing by> 1  cm/year.1 Pre-operative assessment of cardiopulmonary fitness, including respiratory function, is of paramount importance and all patients should have their respiratory disease assessed/optimised before surgery.
Source: European Journal of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery - Category: Surgery Authors: Tags: Research letter: For debate Source Type: research