Background
Despite major advances in surgical techniques, ruptured abdominal aortic
aneurysms a still carry high mortality. The overall mortality of
ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm (rAAA) is approximately 70%
including in and out of hospital deaths with approximately half dying
prior to hospital presentation.1 Surgical mortality
remains at least 40% for those that do make it to the operating room. A
missed diagnosis of rAAA is lethal. Established poor preoperative
mortality risk factors include old age, hypotension, and elevated
creatinine at presentation. 1 Our case study focuses
on a patient with known infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) who
was brought into the emergency department after cardiac arrest. A
point-of-care (POC) ultrasound was obtained which confirmed rAAA.
Bedside ultrasound can be a useful diagnostic tool, especially in
patients in extremis or in those who are unable to provide a history.
Obtaining a CT scan can be difficult in hemodynamically unstable
patients and thus a POC ultrasound may be an expedient, non-invasive
tool to guide clinical decision making in the acute care setting.