Elective Endovascular Repair of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms with Modular and Unibody Type Endografts

In this study, we aimed to evaluate the performance of modular and unibody endografts for the endovascular repair of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA).

Between January 2012 and December 2017, 130 elective infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysms treated in an endovascular manner were retrospectively evaluated. Sixty-six patients with the modular type (Medtronic Endurant^TM II and Lifetech Ankura^TM AAA) and 64 patients with the unibody type (Endologix AFX®) were compared with regards to early and postoperative one-year results.

There was one in-hospital mortality (0.8%) in the modular group. There was no difference in postoperative first-year mortality rate between the two groups (p = 0.678). Loco-regional anesthesia was used more often in the unibody group [34 patients (53.1%)] and the use of general anesthesia was higher in the modular group [56 patients (84.8%)] (p < 0.001). While the duration of the procedure was shorter in the unibody group (p < 0.001), no statistically significant difference was found in the duration of fluoroscopy (p = 0.813) and the amount of contrast agent used (p = 0.553). The follow-up period in the intensive care unit was shorter in the modular group (p < 0.001). Moreover, the five-year survival rate was similar between the groups (84.8% in the modular group and 78.4% in the unibody group, log-rank p = 0.703).

The results obtained in our study show that modular and unibody grafts are effective and reliable, although there are some negligible differences in the early period.