Chronic rupture of abdominal aortic aneurysm with vertebral erosion: an uncommon but important cause of back pain.

Chronic contained rupture of the aorta is a rare condition that may present with varied patient symptomatology. We present a case of contained rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm causing vertebral erosion in an elderly male patient who had chronic backache and presented to the emergency services with a recently developed throbbing epigastric mass. Early use of computed tomography enabled prompt diagnosis and the condition was managed by endovascular stenting. The clinical and imaging findings of this potentially fatal condition are described, awareness of which is important to the physicians, orthopedicians, surgeons, and radiologists.