Hospital participation

226 hospitals, identified as possibly performing surgical or endovascular repair of an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), were sent an organisational questionnaire. 188 of these hospitals returned a questionnaire, whilst 38 hospitals did not and gave us no reason as to why they should not participate in the study. Four of these 38 hospitals contributed to the National Vascular Database operated by the VSGBI ¹. Seven of the 188 hospitals that returned organisational questionnaires were excluded, based on answers in their questionnaires, leaving 181 hospitals to take part in the study. Of these, 163 were NHS hospitals and 18 were independent hospitals.

Of the 181 hospitals identified by returned organisational questionnaires, 137 hospitals completed at least one clinical questionnaire, 21 reported no cases for either month and 23 returned no questionnaires and did not tell us that there were no cases. Of the 23 hospitals that returned no questionnaires, one hospital said they were too understaffed and did not have time to participate and two hospitals returned questionnaires after the deadline.