Between January 1980 and September 1988, 34 octogenarians underwent aortic aneurysm repair. There were 26 men and eight women with a median age of 83 years (range 80-88 years). Twenty underwent 'emergency' repair after presenting with pain and/or collapse: 11 with a retroperitoneal rupture, three with an intraperitoneal rupture and six with an expanding aneurysm. The mortality rate for this group was 35 per cent. During the same period 14 patients had an elective repair and there were no deaths within 30 days. The mean hospital stay for the elective group was 14.2 days compared with 17.0 days for survivors in the emergency group. There was no significant difference in terms of risk factors between those who developed postoperative complications and those who did not. These mortality rates compare favourably with our overall mortality results for elective (4.6 per cent) and emergency (31 per cent) surgery. Those patients over 80 years of age with infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysms should not be refused surgery on the basis of age alone; each patient should be judged individually.