ABSTRACT
In general the incidence of peripheral arterial aneurysm is said to be low. We focussed on popliteal aneurysm and enrolled 18 legs in 14 patients with popliteal aneurysm who visited us during the period from 1974 to January 1998 in our study. Acute arterial occlusion was observed as a complication in 6 of the 14 patients (42.9%) and rupture developed in 4 patients (28.6%), and on those occasions this disease was frequently detected and treated for the first time. Although this disease is said to scarcely affect prognosis, we encountered patients for whom amputation of the leg was unfortunately required. This disease was thus considered to require sufficient care. Popliteal arterial aneurysm is frequently palpable from the body surface and increased recognition of this disease should enable more appropriate treatment.