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.