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For Bob Cole, it all started with a minor backache.

Sitting on a flight to St. John's from Toronto, where the legendary broadcaster had just done play-by-play of a Maple Leafs game, he felt a twinge in his back and the discomfort continued through the night.

The next day, Mr. Cole saw a physiotherapist, who suspected a herniated disk. A scan confirmed it, but the radiologist also noticed something else far more worrisome. Mr. Cole had an aortic aneurysm, a bulging sac in the aorta.

"It was a fluke that they found it, but that test probably saved my life," he said in an interview.

Because of an unrelated condition, Mr. Cole's aneurysm was caught early, it was monitored for 18 months and he underwent surgery early this summer - after the Stanley Cup finals - to correct the condition.

Today, he is fully recovered and ready for hockey season.

Few people are as lucky. An aortic aneurysm is painless, but if the bulge grows and the aorta bursts, about 80 per cent of victims die.

About 1,000 Canadians a year die of burst aortic aneurysms. The country's vascular surgeons say that at least half those deaths could be prevented with screening: systematic testing for aortic aneurysms.

In a policy statement being published today, the Canadian Society for Vascular Surgery says every man over 65 and all women over 65 at high risk (meaning those who smoke or have a family history of aneurysm) should be tested.

"The time has come for a national screening program," Thomas Lindsay, a vascular surgeon at Toronto's University Health Network, said in an interview. "It will save lives and it's cost effective."

Screening is relatively simple: Patients need only undergo an ultrasound - similar to the test done on a pregnant woman to check the health of the fetus - which will show whether there is a bulge in the aorta, the artery that runs from the heart to the abdomen.

The test costs about $50.

Currently, the United States has a one-time screening program for everyone who turns 65 and Britain is in the midst of creating a national screening program.

Dr. Lindsay said Canada should follow suit, but he added it is more complicated here because each province would have to get on board. It would also take a while to scale up to a nation-wide program because of shortages of technicians and the likely spike in the number of elective operations.

The aorta is normally about the size of a quarter, but can swell to the size of a grapefruit. Aortic aneurysm is a fairly common condition, affecting about 5 per cent of men and 1 per cent of women.

Dr. Lindsay said the big advantage of screening is that physicians can spot the condition early, monitor the growth of the aneurysm and operate when necessary. The odds of surviving elective surgery are dramatically better than emergency surgery, he noted.

"But the only way screening is effective is if you do it systematically. You can't leave it to the luck of the draw."

When an aortic aneurysm bursts, people suffer massive blood loss. About half die instantly. If patients get to hospital quickly, emergency surgery can be performed, but the death rate is about 40 per cent.

If the aneurysm is repaired during elective surgery, the death rate is about 4 per cent.

Repairing an aortic aneurysm is major surgery and the procedure should not be done unless there is a real risk of the aneurysm bursting: Patients are often opened up from the abdomen right to the heart. A growing amount of elective surgery, however, is done with a minimally invasive technique that requires only a tiny incision in the groin.

Mr. Cole joked that he now has a scar that can rival that of any professional hockey player.

But, he added, he has won a prize more valuable than the Stanley Cup: a new lease on life.

"I had a life-threatening illness and I'm lucky that it was discovered purely by accident. These things shouldn't be left to chance. We should be screening everyone."