The Rosser index evaluates eight levels of disability (physical mobility) and four levels of distress (freedom from pain). Answers are weighted and scored. “Perfect health” equals a score of 1, and equal to and less than 1 are the only two possible results. Hennessy et al. [11] in 1998 analyzed a group of 14 rAAA survivors who had a Rosser index of 1.000 (range, 0.680–1.000), and this was similar to the scores of patients having an elective AAA repair.

The Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36 (SF-36) health survey is a 36-item, patient-reported questionnaire of current (last four weeks) health. The SF-36 and its derivative form, the RAND-36, have been widely used to compare the quality of life in different patient populations. The SF-36 has eight rated score areas: vitality, physical functioning, bodily pain, general health perceptions, physical role functioning, emotional role functioning, social role functioning, and mental health. The SF-36 has been used in several studies to evaluate the quality of life after ruptured AAA. Bohmer et al. [12], in 1999, using the SF-36, reported that at a mean of 48 months after repair, the quality of life of survivors of a rAAA was similar to the quality of life of the age-adjusted general population. In 2007, Hill et al. [13] compared patients undergoing elective open AAA repair to patients that survived an rAAA and the general population and found that they all reported a similar quality of life. Korhonen et al. [14], in 2003, evaluated patients using the RAND-36 and found no difference in seven of the eight domains at a mean of 33 months after the procedure when compared to the general population. However, they did note that the rAAA survivors scored lower in the physical functioning domain. Interestingly, these authors commented that a “stormy” (complicated) postoperative course did not correlate with poor quality of life when evaluated years after the procedure.

Hinterseher and colleagues [15] used the WHO-QoL-BREF-test to evaluate the quality of life after rAAA. The WHO-QoL-BREF-test is a self-administered questionnaire that contains 26 items to be answered on a scale of 1–5. The categories evaluated are global life quality; physical, psychological, and social relations; and environment. They compared the results of 24 patients that had an open repair for a rAAA to the results of age- and sex-matched subjects in the German population. At 6 months the quality of life between both groups was not different.