Shrinkage of abdominal aortic aneurysm after successful endovascular repair: results from single center study

In the literature, the behavior of the aneurysm sac after endovascular grafting has been the subject of significant speculation. It has been suggested that shrinkage of the abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is different for various endografts. This study was undertaken to evaluate endograft-specific differences in aneurysm sac shrinkage and to evaluate other factors that may influence AAA shrinkage.

Forty patients with an AAA treated with endovascular grafts with a complete 18 months follow-up and complete CT angiography (CTA) follow-up were available for analysis. All patients with a persistent endoleak, endograft migration or any other reason for intervention or conversion were excluded from this analysis. Shrinkage was defined as a reduction in the AAA diameter of 5 mm or more. Chi-squared tests were used to test whether shrinkage was different for the kind of stent graft used (Gore Excluder vs Cook-Zenith), preexistent AAA diameter (<65 mm vs =or>65 mm), and AAA status (ruptured vs non-ruptured) (two-sided; a= 0.05).

At 18 months after treatment, shrinkage was observed in 14 patients (52%) of the 27 patients treated with a Gore Excluder endograft and in 8 patients (62%) of the 13 patients treated with a Cook Zenith endograft (P=0.74). In 31 patients with a diameter <65 mm, shrinkage was observed in 19 patients (61%) whereas of the 9 patients with a diameter =or>65 mm, shrinkage was observed in 3 patients (33%) (P=0.253). Of the 34 patients with a non-ruptured AAA, shrinkage was observed in 18 patients (53%) versus of the 6 patients with a ruptured AAA shrinkage was observed in 4 patients (66%) (P=0.673).

From this study can be concluded that the influence of the endograft on shrinkage of the AAA sac might be less prominent than suggested in the literature. Furthermore, our study shows that other factors such as preexistent AAA diameter may influence AAA shrinkage after endovascular repair.