The aim of the study was to assess the surgical outcome of elective infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repair and the clinical and surgical factors that may predict this outcome. The series comprises 174 consecutive patients who underwent elective surgery for infrarenal AAA. Factors found to be predictive of early hospital death (4.5%) were aneurysm size (> 5 cm), ischaemic heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), preoperatively elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) and a history of aneurysm-related pain preoperatively. The outcome was also very poor if the bacterial culture from the aneurysm sac was positive. On the whole, the abdominal aortic aneurysm operation effectively controls the disease and can be safely employed electively.