The syndrome of abdominal aortic aneurysm rupturing into the gastrointestinal tract; summary of the literature and case report.

R UPTURE of an aneurysm of the abdominal portion of the aorta into the gastrointestinal tract is accompanied by a characteristic syndrome which will usually suggest the diagnosis. This dramatic accident is sufficiently rare to justify the continued reporting and collection of cases for analysis. In this paper, another example of the rupture of such an aneurysm into the duodenum is recorded, and the list of reported cases is brought up to date. Including the one reported here, forty-one cases have now been collected. Undoubtedly others are concealed in the numerous studies of aortic aneurysm in general. In 1943, Rottino,’ in a very thorough search, found thirty-one examples of rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm and added a case of his own. The essential clinical and m?rphologic data concerning the group, so far as they were obtainable, were arranged by him in tabular form. Our Table I, adding nine cases, is purposely constructed as a continuation of that presented by Rottino, using the same headings and continuing his serial numbering. Since the cases reported by Nunneley2 and Peiias3 were not known to Rottino, his own case becomes the thirty-fourth in the series. References to the cases in Rottino’s table will not be repeated except that for Vehling,4 whose dissertation, available in microfilm, can now be cited more accurately.