Objective: The aims of the present study were to describe the age-specific incidence and 30-day mortality of aortic dissection patients presenting to the EDs in New South Wales (NSW).
Methods: This was a data linkage study involving emergency, inpatient and death registry administrative data from NSW.
Results: The present study found 273 instances of aortic dissection in NSW from July 2017 to July 2018. Calculated incidence was 3.47 per 100 000. Incidence increased exponentially with age. The 30-day mortality rate among this cohort was 35.53% (n = 97). Mortality was significantly associated with age and pre-existing comorbidity burden, but was not associated with gender, level of hospital or time of presentation.
Conclusions: The present study found the incidence of aortic dissection within the NSW population to be 3.4 per 100 000. The incidence of aortic dissection in our population increased from 8.6 per 100 000 for people aged between 60 and 80 years to 32 per 100 000 for those aged over 80 years.
Keywords: aortic dissection; emergency; incidence.
© 2020 Australasian College for Emergency Medicine.