OBJECTIVES: Factors influencing preferences towards treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) were scarcely investigated. To identify how patients’ experience can affect their preferences for treatment of AAA. METHODS: within a multicentre Discrete-Choice-Study aimed to assess preferences toward AAA treatment the participant patients responded to 4 pair-wise choice sets comparing treatment options obtained from a factorial combination of 6 characteristics: type of anaesthesia (general vs. local); recovery time to everyday basic activities (2 vs. 4 days);  risk of re-intervention at 5 years (7% vs. 15%); complexity of follow-up (with vs. without CT examination); risk of major complications (2% vs. 5%);  additional cost of intervention (€0 vs. €2000). Patients preferences were elicited before treatment (NAIF) and after treatment with open surgery (OPEN) or endovascular procedure (EVAR). A segmentation conditional logistic regression model was applied to estimate relative importance (RI) assigned to each characteristic according to patients’ experience with treatment. RESULTS: A total of 160 patients participated (aged 49-88 years, 91.7% male) from 9 hospitals. Fifty-two percent were NAIF at enrolment. Overall, half patients were treated with OPEN, half with EVAR. One most important characteristic, risk of procedural major complications, was considered more important by NAIF and EVAR than OPEN (RI=31.7% and 22.0% vs 11.0%). Additional costs were more important to OPEN (RI=38.3%) than NAIF (25.2%) and EVAR (19.5%). Local anaesthesia was more important to EVAR (24.8%) than NAIF or OPEN (RI=8.5%). Risk of repeating the procedure was similarly important to treated patients (RI=17.5%), less to NAIF (RI=12.3%). Recovery time was more important to OPEN (RI=14.3%) and EVAR (RI=10.3%) than NAIF (8.6%). Type of follow-up tests was least important, with OPEN and NAIF preferring less complex tests (RI=4-10%), but EVAR preferring more complex tests (RI=6%). CONCLUSIONS: Preferences depend on experience, knowledge and expectancies. Understanding patients’ preferences can help physicians to optimize benefits of treatments.