Outcomes of different treatments on Takayasu's arteritis

Takayasu's arteritis (TA) is a nonspecific chronic inflammation of the aorta and its branches. This study compared the outcomes of surgical treatments including bypass surgery, cutting balloon angioplasty and conventional balloon angioplasty to TA patients exhibiting supra-aortic arterial (SAA).

This retrospective study was conducted on 42 TA patients, obtained from hospital database, who underwent surgical therapy due to SAA lesions from January 2010 to March 2015. Ten patients were reconstructed using cutting balloon angioplasty, 16 patients received conventional balloon angioplasty and 16 patients from bypass surgery. The primary patency, recurrent symptoms, re-intervention, early (<30 days) and late complications associated with treatment were evaluated.

In the conventional balloon angioplasty group, two patients were converted to bypass surgery as the guidewire could not traverse the lesions. The follow-up at 30.07±17.96 months (range, 1-60 months) showed restenosis or occlusion development in 40.9% arteries in conventional balloon angioplasty, compared with 6.3% after bypass surgery (P=0.018). The restenosis or occlusion rate between cutting balloon angioplasty and conventional balloon angioplasty groups were insignificant (P=0.738). In the re-intervention, three out of four (75%) treated by cutting balloon angioplasty were patent as compared to the three out of nine arteries (33.3%) dealt with by conventional angioplasty that was patent (P=0.266). Intracerebral hemorrhage (n=1) was developed in the bypass surgery group. Mortality was not observed in any of the groups.

Cutting balloon angioplasty can be considered as a safe, effective, and less-invasive alternative for non-diffuse SAA lesions, especially in young TA patients. However, bypass surgery has better primary patency rate than endovascular treatment.