Qualitätsmanagement bauchaortenaneurysma der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Gefäßchirurgie (DGG) - Ergebnisse 2000: Kommission Qualitätssicherung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Gefäßchirurgie (DGG)

The intention of quality management concerning treatment of infrarenal aortic aneurysms is to document procedures for external quality control. Participation in the program is voluntary, not on an intention-to-treat basis, and contains data from a structured questionnaire. Data collection and statistics are performed by an independent company in an anonymous manner. In 2000, 3265 patients were registered involving 102 hospitals or departments. Results: 81.7% of the patients were treated with an open procedure and 18.2% by intervention. Of the open procedures performed, 86% were elective cases, whereas 96% of the interventions were elective. The rate of ruptured aneurysms was 14% and 4%, respectively. Perioperative mortality was 3.4% for open surgery and 1.0% for interventions. In ruptured cases mortality was 43% for open procedures. Due to the low incidence of ruptured aneurysms in interventional surgery no statistical analysis was performed. More differentiated interpretations were possible regarding age and mortality, blood consumption, intensive care stay, or mortality and workload of the hospital. Although only one-fourth of all procedures performed on the infrarenal aorta in Germany could be registered and although participation was voluntary, the results show that aortic procedures in Germany meet international standards. Endovascular procedures account for one-fifth of all operations, showing better perioperative results. The main aims for the future are enlargement of the number of participants to improve the quality of the statements and inclusion of a majority of institutions treating aortic aneurysms.