A 59-year-old man was admitted to the Nashville Veterans Administration Hospital for evaluation of fever, weight loss, and nausea and vomiting of one month’s duration. Subsequently he was found to have an aneurysm of the abdominal aorta 8 cm. in diameter, secondarily infected with group C beta-hemolytic streptococci. The aneurysm was not resected, and in spite of theoretically adequate antibiotic therapy, the aneurysm ruptured and exsanguination occurred. No case similar to ours was found in a review of the literature concerning mycotic aneurysms of the abdominal aorta. Aneurysms of the abdominal aorta which became infected with bacteria are difficult therapeutic problems. Surgical resection of such lesions carries, at most institutions, a mortality rate greater than 95%. There are only six reported long-term survivors of this procedure.
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Perkins et al. (1974) studied this question.