Outcomes of Open v. Endovascular Repair of Descending Thoracic and Thoracoabdominal Aortic Aneurysms

ABSTRACT Background Open repair is the standard of care for patients with descending thoracic and thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms. Although effective, surgery carries a high risk of morbidity and mortality. Endovascular stent-grafts were introduced to treat these aneurysms in patients considered too high risk for open repair. Early results are promising, but later results are incompletely known. Therefore, we sought to compare short- and intermediate-term outcomes of open versus endovascular repair for these aneurysms. Methods From 2000–2010, 1,053 patients underwent open (n=457) or endovascular (n=596) repair of descending thoracic and thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms at Cleveland Clinic. To balance patient characteristics between these groups, propensity-score matching was performed, yielding 278 well-matched pairs (61% of possible pairs). Endpoints included short- and long-term outcomes. Results In matched patients, compared with endovascular stenting, open repair achieved similar in-hospital mortality (n=23/8.3% vs n=21/7.6%, P=.8) and occurrence of paralysis and stroke (n=10/3.6% vs n=6/2.2%, P=.3), despite longer postoperative stay (median 11 vs 6 days), more dialysis-dependent acute renal failure (n=24/8.6% vs n=9/3.3%, P=.008), and prolonged ventilation (n=106/46% vs n=17/6.3%, P Conclusions Open repair of descending thoracic and thoracoabdominal aneurysms can achieve acceptable short-term outcomes with better intermediate-term outcomes than endovascular repair.