Department of Surgical Sciences, Vascular Surgery, Uppsala University, Sweden; Department of Vascular Surgery, Kolding Hospital, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark. Electronic address: Doc.hans.ravn@gmail.com.
Ninety-five per cent of those operated on for popliteal artery aneurysm (PA) are men. Thus, PAs in women are difficult to investigate. The aim was to study the disease in women.
Women treated for PA in 1987-2012, prospectively registered in the Swedish vascular registry, Swedvasc, supplemented by case records, were compared with the larger male cohort. Survival was determined through cross linkage with the National Population Registry.
1509 patients (men and women), 1872 legs, were identified; of these 74 patients (4.9%) were women, 81 legs (4.3%). The median age was 70 years in women versus 69 in men. Twenty-nine centres operated on women (range 1-7 women/centre). There were no time trends in the proportion of women operated on (p=.5). Bilateral PA occurred in 9.5% of women and 27.0% of men (p=.002). For symptomatic aneurysms, there was a larger proportion of small aneurysms (