Does the transfer time of a patient with ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm play a significant role in survival?

Abstract

The diagnosis of a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm in a patient presenting to the emergency department of a rural hospital without in-house vascular surgery facilities creates a stressful situation for the emergency physician or general surgeon on duty who needs to assess the feasibility of the patient’s inter-hospital transfer to a vascular surgery unit, particularly in terms of transfer time. We have searched the literature for relevant studies as to whether the delay incurred by the inter-hospital transfer of a patient with ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm has any impact on the prognosis of these patients. Few studies, all of which were retrospective, have focused on the relationship between inter-hospital transfer time and mortality; their findings suggested that the additional time spent on the inter-hospital transfer of patients with ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm does not aggravate their mortality rate.