AbstractRupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm is a dire surgical emergency. The mortality rate in surgically treated cases, although declining due to better diagnosis and advances in vascular surgery, is high. However, the mortality in untreated cases is virtually 100 per cent. By contrast, the mortality rate in elective operations is very low. For this reason all authors urge early diagnosis and elective surgery. Every such aneurysm, if the patient lives long enough, will eventually rupture.Because patients with an abdominal aneurysm have significant atherosclerosis and perhaps other degenerative cardiovascular disease, and because only rarely do they have symptoms of impending rupture, geriatricians are urged to include an x‐ray search for this lesion in the periodic examination of these patients. The author's series of 26 cases is presented.