Scottish Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) screening programme statistics
Year ending 31 March 2023

About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) provides an annual update on the Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) screening programme in Scotland. This programme aims to reduce the number of deaths caused by abdominal aneurysms in men aged 65 and over.

On 30 March 2020 the Scottish Government announced the temporary pause of the national screening programmes in Scotland, including AAA screening, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The first AAA screening clinics resumed at the end of July 2020 and by September 2020 all local NHS Board programmes were having regular clinics. NHS Boards have not yet returned to pre-pandemic performance levels against certain KPIs.  

Main points

Data for men reaching age 66 in the year ending 31 March 2023:

• Only 74.1% of men were invited for screening before their 66th birthday (the KPI timescale for the invitation), compared with 76.2% in the previous year, and 97.4% pre-pandemic (year ending 31 March 2020)

Outline of 10 male figures, with 7.2 of them shaded in to represent that just over 7 in 10 men eligible for routine abdominal aortic aneurysm screening were tested in 2021/22 in Scotland (72.6% coverage).

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• Similarly, only 70.7% of all men eligible for screening were tested before age 66 and 3 months (the KPI timescale for screening), compared with 72.6% to March 2022 and 82.8% pre-pandemic.
• Coverage of screening was lower in more deprived areas (most deprived 66.9%; least deprived 73.0%). The inequality gap in coverage (6.1 percentage points) was lower than in previous years (16.5 and 13.9 percentage points to March 2022 and March 2021, respectively), due to increased coverage in the more deprived areas and decreases in the two least deprived.

Scans and vascular referrals in the year ending 31 March 2023:

• The total number of initial and surveillance scans completed in the year ending 31 March 2023 was 37,684 (recovering from 33,422 and 16,148 in the two previous years and higher than the 29,582 scans completed pre-pandemic by March 2020).
• A large aneurysm was detected in 94 men resulting in a referral to vascular specialist services. The majority of men were seen by a vascular specialist within two weeks (90.4%, compared to 87.7% in the previous year and 96.6% pre-pandemic).
• Eleven of 58 men (19.0%) deemed appropriate for AAA repair surgery were operated on within eight weeks compared with 13.3% of men in the previous year. Pre-pandemic, however, this figure was at 50.6%, showing that the service has not yet fully recovered.

Background

An Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm is a swelling of the aorta, the main artery in the body, as it passes through the abdomen. The condition is most common in men aged 65 and over and usually there are no symptoms. Large aneurysms are uncommon but can be very serious. As the wall of the aorta stretches, it becomes weaker, and it can rupture (burst). If the aneurysm ruptures, this leads to life-threatening internal bleeding and, in 8 out of 10 cases, death.

Men aged 65 are sent an invitation to attend screening. Men over 65 years of age, who have not been screened previously, can self-refer into the screening programme. The test is a simple ultrasound scan of the abdomen. Most men have a normal result and are discharged from the screening programme. Men with detected small or medium aneurysms are invited for regular surveillance scans to monitor the size of the aneurysm. Men with large aneurysms are at high risk of aneurysm rupture and are referred to vascular specialist services for assessment and to discuss treatment options.

The screening coverage rates includes scans completed over of a period of two years and three months. This reflects the time between the first (youngest) men in the eligible cohort reaching age 65 (and becoming eligible for initial screening) and the last (oldest) men in the cohort reaching age 66 and 3 months, the target timescale for screening.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be in April 2025.