Acute thrombosis of an abdominal aortic aneurysm followed by delayed rupture associated with bacterial infection

Abstract

Sudden thrombosis of an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is distinctly rare and is associated with up to 50% mortality. Almost equally rare is infection of a preexisting AAA. We report an extremely unusual case of an AAA that thrombosed leading to acute limb ischemia. This was followed several months later by a delayed rupture of the thrombosed AAA associated with an Escherichia coli infection. We suspect the aortic thrombus was hematogenously seeded by a urinary tract infection. A review of the literature revealed that bacterial infection of a previously thrombosed AAA, leading to a delayed rupture, has not been previously reported.