Screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm in Northumberland

A study was carried out to examine the feasibility of setting up a community‐based screening programme for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) in men aged 65–79 years served by a district general hospital. A pilot project was run in two general practices from which 800 men were invited to undergo ultrasonography of the abdominal aorta. Of these, 628 (78·5 per cent) attended; 42 (6·7 per cent) were found to have an aneurysm (aortic diameter greater than 29 mm), ten (1·6 per cent) had a large aneurysm (diameter above 49 mm) and seven (1·1 per cent) received aortic grafts. On the basis of these findings it was felt that to screen all men aged 65–79 years (n = 12800) or aged 65–74 years (n = 10300) would lead to more operations than local facilities could handle. A more practical option would be to target annually men aged 65 years, with rescreening at intervals of 5 years until age 75 years, but even this would eventually lead to an unmanageable number of operations.