ABSTRACT
Vascular surgery is a field of expertise demanding some degree of specialisation and therefore in many countries it is recognised as a monospecialty. In most of these countries, specialisation within vascular surgery requires a number of years training within vascular surgery following two to three years in general surgical training. It should follow, therefore, that, in general, results are superior in larger hospitals with access to vascular surgery rather than in smaller hospitals.1,2 The results of emergency vascular surgery should also be better if conducted by specialists. This difference may be more difficult to observe because of a number of factors, including that of smaller numbers and the difficulty in comparing cases. In Denmark, however, where all vascular surgery is performed within only
10 units staffed solely by specialists in vascular surgery, the results of surgical treatment of ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms (RAAAs) speak for themselves: the mortality in treating more than 1400 cases of RAAA was 42 per cent (Table 1B.1).
