Purpose: In penetrating aortic ulcers (PAUs), limited data support tubular thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) as a viable treatment option. For treatment of more proximal PAUs, hybrid approaches and-more recently-scalloped TEVAR (scTEVAR) have been advocated. Outcomes of scTEVAR specifically for PAUs have not yet been reported. This study reports long-term outcomes for tubular and scTEVAR in PAUs and compares the safety profile in both cohorts regarding the significantly more proximal landing zone (LZ) for scTEVAR.
Materials and methods: This single-center retrospective cohort study includes all nonacute patients treated for complicated PAU with scTEVAR and tubular TEVAR. Patient and PAU characteristics as well as procedural success, complication and reintervention rates, and all-cause and aortic mortality were analyzed.
Results: Of 212 TEVAR procedures reviewed, 21 patients with tubular TEVAR and 19 patients with scTEVAR were included. Patient and PAU characteristics were similar, and LZ was significantly more proximal in the scTEVAR cohort (p=0.0001), with similar number and types of supra-aortic revascularization procedures. Clinical success was reached in all 40 patients (100%), and reintervention rate was 2/21 (9.5%) and 1/19 (5.3%), respectively. Over the mean follow-up of 63 (TEVAR) and 53 (scTEVAR) months, clinical success was stable in all patients with one (abdominal) aortic-related mortality in the scTEVAR cohort.
Conclusion: Treatment of complicated PAUs with TEVAR as well as scTEVAR provides excellent and similar clinical success, stability of clinical success, and aortic survival with acceptable complication and reintervention rates. Scalloped TEVAR safely lengthens the proximal sealing zone to address more proximal pathologies.
Clinical impact: Treatment of asymptomatic complicated penetrating aortic ulcers (PAUs) with thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) provides excellent clinical success and acceptable complication and reintervention rates. More patients become amenable to endovascular treatment by including scalloped TEVAR (scTEVAR) as a means to safely lengthen the proximal sealing zone to address more proximal pathologies.
Purpose: Chronic total occlusion (CTO) remains as a major target for endovascular treatment (EVT) in improving symptomatic lower-extremity artery disease (LEAD). However, despite the technical demand and learning curve for the procedure, volume-outcome relationship of EVT targeted for CTO in symptomatic LEAD remains unclear.
Materials and methods: Data were obtained from a nationwide registry for EVT procedures limited to the Japanese Association of Cardiovascular Intervention and Therapeutics between January 2018 and December 2020 from 660 cardiovascular centers in Japan. In total, 96 099 patients underwent EVT for symptomatic LEAD, and 41 900 (43.6%) underwent CTO-targeted EVTs during the study period. Institutional volume was classified into quartiles. The association of institutional volumes with short-term outcomes was explored using the generalized linear mixed model using a logit link function, in which, interinstitution variability was used as a random effect.
Results: The median institutional volume for all EVT cases per quartile was 29, 68, 125, and 299 cases/year for the first, second, third, and fourth quartiles, respectively. With each model analysis, the adjusted odds ratios (ORs) for technical success were significantly lower in patients who underwent EVT in institutions within the first quartile (<52 cases/year) than in the other quartiles (P < .01, respectively). On the contrary, the adjusted ORs for procedural complications were significantly higher in the first and second quartiles than in the third and fourth quartiles (P < .01, respectively).
Conclusion: In contemporary Japanese EVT practice, a higher institutional volume but not operator volume was associated with a higher technical success rate and a lower procedural complication rate in patients with symptomatic LEAD involving CTO lesions.
Clinical impact: EVT for CTO lesions is still challenging for clinicians because of difficulties of wire/devise crossing or high procedural complications rate. Our study demonstrated that a higher institutional volume but not operator volume was associated with a higher technical success rate and a lower procedural complication rate in patients with symptomatic LEAD involving CTO lesions. In contemporary Japanese practice, a higher institutional experience has better impacts on short-term clinical outcomes. Future research should determine the relationship between institutional volume and long-term clinical outcomes.
Purpose: Spontaneous isolated superior mesenteric artery dissection (SISMAD) is a rare vascular disease, the treatment strategies for which remain debated. This retrospective study aimed to compare the outcomes of conservative and endovascular treatments in patients with SISMAD.
Materials and methods: Fifty-eight patients with SISMAD confirmed by computed tomography angiography admitted to our hospital between November 2017 and May 2021 and received confirmed conservative (n=43) or endovascular (n=15) treatment. The patient demographics, imaging analysis, and follow-up results were analyzed and compared.
Results: The cohort included 54 males and 4 females with a mean age of 52 years. Abdominal pain was the major complaint (49/58, 84.5%), followed by chest pain (2/58, 3.4%). The mean follow-up was 9.1±7.9 months. The 2 main Sakamoto types were type III (27/58, 46.6%) and type IV (16/58, 27.6%). Most patients in both groups had angle 1 (aortomesenteric angle) and angle 2 (superior mesenteric artery [SMA] course) of over 80°. About 67.3% of patients had long length of dissection (>60 mm). The median distance between the SMA root and the dissection entry site was 1.5 cm, mostly (84.5% of the patients) in the curved segment of the SMA. Telephone follow-ups found that most patients survived pain-free, and none underwent intestinal resection. Only 4 patients, 2 in each group, had recurrent abdominal pain during follow-up and received stenting treatment to achieve complete vascular remodeling. Importantly, we found that the conservative and endovascular therapies achieved similar high remodeling rates (94% and 100%, respectively; p=0.335). The conservative group achieved satisfying vascular remodeling (partial, 35%; complete, 59%), making it as safe and effective a treatment as endovascular therapy.
Conclusions: Initial conservative management is safe and effective in patients with SISMAD. A high technical success rate and favorable short-term outcomes were associated with endovascular procedures as secondary interventions. It would be helpful to conduct large-scale, prospective, randomized controlled trials with long-term follow-up for SISMAD.
Clinical impact: 1. This research provided more detail clinical information, such as evaluation of abdominal pain and measurements of SMA angles, which is all relevant to treatment. 2. What's more, the most surprising results of follow-up part shown that conservative treatment could reached the remodeling rate as high as endovascular treatment, which was relatively low in other studies. It helps us share our treatment experience with clinicians. 3. In addition, we get limited knowledge about this rare disease, it's encouraging us to do more researches based on the results we had.
Purpose: To describe snare-assisted vessel targeting to selectively overcome a dissection in the iliac bifurcation and gain antegrade access to the hypogastric artery (HA).
Technique: The technique is demonstrated in a 64-year-old woman with an asymptomatic Crawford type III thoracoabdominal aneurysm. A 2-stage endovascular repair, consisting of a thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) and a branched endovascular aortic repair was planned. In the control angiography after TEVAR, a disrupted plaque with consequent dissection in the right iliac bifurcation was detected. The perfusion of the common iliac artery and external iliac artery resulted impaired. The targeting of the right HA through a contralateral antegrade approach failed, whereas an ipsilateral retrograde approach was possible but unsuitable for therapeutic purposes. Using the catheter of the retrograde ipsilateral access, a snare from a contralateral crossover was cached and dragged into the HA, allowing the targeting of the vessels and further endovascular therapy with angioplasty and stenting. Follow-up 8 months postoperatively demonstrated the patency of the stents and well-preserved perfusion in the right iliac bifurcation.
Conclusion: The snare-dragging technique can be used to gain access to vessels presenting challenging conformations or dissections. This application may be a valuable support for complex endovascular treatment in a variety of patients.
Clinical impact: The snare-dragging technique can be used to gain access to vessels presenting challenging conformations or dissections. It allows the catheterization to be establish from the easiest and safest approach and then "transferred" from one access to the other. It avoids the risk of repeated loss of catheterization due to unstable and unfavorable working angles, and it saves time and radiation. It permits different material combinations, adapting to the available resources and materials. We believe that the current technique may increase the strategy spectrum available for endovascular therapy and complex endovascular procedures.
Purpose: Preoperative anemia is associated with adverse outcomes after cardiac and noncardiac surgeries, but outcomes after an endovascular peripheral vascular intervention (PVI) are not well established. We aimed to assess the association of preoperative anemia with 30 day death, hospital length of stay (LOS), and overall (long term) survival in patients undergoing an endovascular PVI for peripheral artery disease.
Materials and methods: In this retrospective, cohort study in the United States and Canada, we queried the national Vascular Quality Initiative database for all endovascular PVIs performed between 2010 and 2019, and outcomes were correlated with patients' hemoglobin (Hb) levels. Anemia was classified as mild (Hb=10-13 g/dL for men and 10-12 g/dL for women), moderate (Hb=8-9.9 g/dL), and severe (Hb<8 g/dL).
Results: A total of 79 707 adult patients who met study criteria underwent endovascular PVI. The mean age was 68 years, and 59% of patients were male. Anemia was documented in 38 543 patients (48%) and was mild in 27 435 (71%), moderate in 9783 (25%), and severe in 1325 (4%). The median follow-up duration was 4 years (range, 1.25-5.78 years). On univariate analysis, 30 day mortality, total LOS, and overall survival were significantly associated with the level of preoperative anemia. These associations persisted in the multivariate models. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis demonstrated an association of death with degree of anemia (p<0.001).
Conclusion: The presence and degree of preoperative anemia were independently associated with increased 30 day mortality and LOS and decreased overall survival for patients with peripheral artery disease who had undergone endovascular PVI.
Clinical impact: The findings from this study have many implications for how to approach vascular surgery in patients with variable hemoglobin levels. Our findings will strengthen our ability to conduct accurate preoperative risk stratification for patients undergoing peripheral vascular interventions. This may also mitigate healthcare expenditures if findings are applied in a way that can lower patient length of postoperative stay while also maintaining quality of care and patient safety. Our results will also serve as guidance for clinical trials, and future prospective trials should evaluate the effect of preoperative optimization of hemoglobin as a potentially modifiable risk factor for outcomes.