SCORES of lives could be saved each year if Bolton introduced a screening programme for aneurysms, says a Bolton expert.

Madu Onwudike, an expert in blood circulation, believes screening patients most at risk from the "silent killer", which leads to swelling and possible rupture of the aorta - the main artery between the heart and the lower body - would allow doctors to operate on the condition before it threatened life.

Figures from the Vascular Surgery Society estimate that just 26 per cent of patients leave theatre alive after surgery to correct a ruptured aorta while only one in two makes it to the hospital without dying.

But Mr Onwudike, a consultant general vascular surgeon at the Royal Bolton Hospital, says screening would allow them to tackle the problem before it becomes a serious threat.

He said: "The incidence is generally about five or 10 per cent of people over the age 60 so it is by no means an inconsiderable amount.

"Of the patients I treat, I expect survival rate of about 60 per cent but that is only out of the people who get to hospital. Around half will die wherever they suffer the attack.

"In four years I have not had anyone die as the result of a planned operation."

Mr Onwudike said the introduction of screening - which takes 10 minutes per patient - would also free up beds and ease the burden being placed on surgeons by offering more flexibility on the timing of operations.

Screening programmes have so far been introduced at a handful of health trusts across the UK but no figures are available to indicate its success.

The issue was raised at the inquest of a Bolton man this week who died months after the rupture of his aorta.

Norman Gradwell, aged 77, suffered an aneurysm in February 2003 and recovered in hospital before returning home, the inquest heard.

But two months later he was readmitted when a graft on a heart valve - performed several years ago during a bypass operation - had become infected while was suffering from the aneurysm.

Mr Gradwell, of Sloane Street, Bolton, was readmitted in April and had an emergency operation to repair the grafts but a poor blood supply to his left leg meant he would have required an amputation.

His family decided that the full operation would have meant a poor quality of life for the war veteran and he died on April 7.

Recording a verdict of death by misadventure, coroner Jennifer Leeming recommended that the hospital trust consider introducing screening programmes.

Mr Onwudike said that it was a complication with the initial emergency surgery that killed Mr Gradwell and said screening would prevent such deaths.

"This shows that there can be complications even some time after the operation. Screening would have picked up this sort of an illness," he said.

Before recording a verdict of death by misadventure, coroner Jennifer Leeming recommended that the hospital trust consider introducing screening programmes.

She said: "It seems appropriate that this is something that is considered further."