Artery surgery deaths drop as specialist expertise grows

The first-ever UK-wide audit of mortality rates for 5,000 people who each year have planned operations for life-threatening abdominal aortic aneurysms show death rates of 7.9 per cent reported in 2008 fell by two thirds to 2.4 per cent in 2008-10.

But the study by the Vascular Society finds major differences between hospitals. Those carrying out the most operations have half the death rates of those carrying out the fewest.

In Yorkshire the average mortality rate is three per cent at the nine hospitals carrying out the specialist work.

Three NHS trusts – the Wakefield-based Mid Yorkshire, Northern Lincolnshire and Goole and Bradford – reported no deaths. The highest mortality rate was 5.9 per cent in Hull although this remains within normal limits.

Hospitals in Leeds and Sheffield were singled out for failing to report the outcomes of dozens of operations.

The Vascular Society said the results showed the UK now met targets set by the national abdominal aortic aneurysm screening programme after a major re-organisation which saw operations being carried out in fewer units.

It said hospitals carrying out fewer operations needed to review how they would continue to provide the service.

Society president Professor Ross Naylor said the results revealed significant improvements.

“It demonstrates the clear commitment of vascular surgeons to improve outcomes for their patients,” he said.

“The 2.4 per cent mortality reported over two years for 8,000 mostly elderly patients underpins our commitment to improving patient safety.”

The condition is often symptom free and leads to a bulge forming in the main blood vessel leading from the heart to the lower half of the body. It most often affects those aged over 65 and is more likely among men and smokers.

If the bulge ruptures it causes catastrophic internal bleeding that can kill in minutes and until recently claimed 10,000 lives a year.

Risks of surgery are balanced against the high risks of leaving the problem untreated – 80 per cent of people with a rupture will die before getting to hospital and approximately half of those who make it there will die in the operating theatre.

A screening programme to detect the condition is due to cover England by March next year.