Improved mortality in treatment of patients with endovascular interventions for chronic mesenteric ischemia

Chronic mesenteric ischemia (CMI) continues to be a devastating diagnosis. There is a national trend toward increased use of endovascular procedures with improved survival for the treatment of these patients. Our aim was to evaluate whether this trend has changed CMI patients' length of hospitalization and health care cost.

We identified all patients admitted for CMI from the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) from 2000 to 2014. Our primary end points included length of hospital stay (LOS) and cost of hospitalization (COH). Our secondary end points included mortality assessment of the CMI hospitalization.

There were 15,475 patients admitted for CMI. The mean age of patients was 71 years, and 4022 (26.0%) were male. There were 10,920 (70.6%) patients treated endovascularly (ENDO) and 4555 (29.4%) patients treated in an open fashion (OPEN). Although a higher proportion of patients in the ENDO (43.3%) group vs OPEN (33.1%) had a Charlson Comorbidity Index score of ≥2 (P < .0001), they had a lower mortality rate (2.4% vs 8.7%; P < .0001), lower mean LOS (6.3 vs 14.0 days; P < .0001), and lower COH ($21,686 vs $42,974; P < .0001). After adjusting for clinical and hospital factors, OPEN continued to demonstrate higher mortality than ENDO (odds ratio, 7.2; 95% confidence interval, 4.9-10.6; P < .0001), longer LOS (mean, +9.7 days; P < .0001), and higher COH (mean, +$25,834; P < .0001).

The rate of ENDO continues to rise nationally in the treatment of CMI patients. After adjusting for clinical and hospital factors, patients in the ENDO group tend to have lower in-hospital mortality of 2.4% and lower LOS by 10 days, and they incur a cost saving of >$25,000 compared with patients in the OPEN group. ENDO should be considered first line of therapy for patients with CMI.