Effects of Peripheral Arterial Disease Interventions on Survival: A Propensity-Score Matched Analysis Using VQI Data

Atherectomy is currently being used extensively for occlusive peripheral artery disease (PAD) interventions without proven benefits. This analysis examines the effects of atherectomy and other endovascular interventions on patient survival.

The aim of this study is to compare overall survival for patients undergoing PAD endovascular interventions, such as plain old balloon angioplasty (POBA), stent deployment and atherectomy.

Propensity score matched cohorts were constructed to conduct pairwise comparisons of overall survival in patients who underwent stenosis and occlusive PAD interventions between May 2011 and February 2020 using Vascular Quality Initiative (VQI) regional registry data. Inverse probability treatment weighting method was used to compare secondary outcomes of in-hospital mortality, length of stay, complications and major amputations. Comparative analysis was performed for POBA vs stenting, POBA vs atherectomy, and stenting vs atherectomy.

A total number of 15281 eligible cases were identified. After propensity score matching, 6094, 4032, and 3312 cases were used to compare POBA versus stent deployment, POBA versus atherectomy and stent versus atherectomy, respectively. Stent deployment had significantly better overall survival compared with POBA and atherectomy (P < 0.001). Multivariable Cox proportional hazard models suggested stenting was associated with a reduction in mortality hazard by 30% compared with POBA (HR: 0.7; 95% CI: 0.6-0.82; P < 0.001) and a 40% mortality reduction compared with atherectomy (HR: 0.6; 95% CI: 0.48-0.75; P < 0.001). No significant difference was found between POBA and atherectomy. There was no statistical difference in other secondary outcomes which were comparable among all cohorts.

Stent deployment was significantly superior to POBA and atherectomy in terms of overall survival with comparable complication and amputation rates. The natural history of PAD patients presenting with claudication is associated with an extremely low annual mortality risk. Therefore, further examinations of outcomes, especially in regards to mortality rates, both POBA and atherectomy on the management of PAD patients especially those presenting with claudication is warranted.