Efficacy and safety analysis of endovascular aortic repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms in patients over eighty years old

Abstract

To evaluate the outcome of the endovascular aortic repair (EVAR) of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) in patients over 80 years old and analyze the factors that influence its long-term curative effect. Follow-up visits and analysis were conducted from January 2004 to December 2013 on a total of 96 AAA patients aged over 80 years old who had been treated with EVAR and thus met the inclusion criteria. The primary focus of the study was all-cause mortality and secondary focuses included the rate of intervention-related complications, the rate of secondary interventions and procedural data. The Kaplan-Meier survival curve was used to analyze the long-term survival rate and the cumulative probability of intervention-related complications. The Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to analyze factors that could influence the long-term survival rate. Effective follow-up visits were conducted on 76 patients (79.2%). The patients were tracked for an average of 3.63 years, with the longest follow-up lasting 10.34 years. During the study, 27 deaths occurred and the all-cause mortality rate was 28.1%. Furthermore, 8 cases of intervention-related complications (8.3%) were observed, including endoleaks and spinal cord ischemia. A total of 6 secondary interventions were conducted on 6 patients, with the rate of secondary interventions being 6.3%. The five-year cumulative survival rate was 64% (95%CI: 0.53-0.78) and the ten-year cumulative survival rate was 35%(95%CI: 0.15-0.84). The Cox proportional hazards model showed that an ASA classification of Ⅲ/Ⅳ (HR=8.45, 95%CI: 1.26-56.55, P<0.05), smoking (HR=2.08, 95%CI: 0.70-2.63, P<0.05) and cerebrovascular diseases (HR=2.96, 95%CI: 1.06-8.25, P<0.05) could significantly increase the risk of the long-term all-cause mortality of an AAA patient treated with EVAR. While hypertension could significantly decrease the risk (HR=0.25, 95%CI: 0.10-0.66, P<0.05). EVAR is safe for senior patients with AAA though personalized preoperative assessment is very important.