National trends and variability of atherectomy use for peripheral vascular interventions from 2010 to 2019

Small, older studies have suggested that the use of atherectomy devices has become common in peripheral vascular interventions (PVIs) despite the paucity of strong clinical guidelines. We analyzed the 10-year trends in the use of atherectomy for PVIs across the United States and identified the main predictors of atherectomy use.

Using the Vascular Quality Initiative registry, we identified all patients who had undergone endovascular PVIs for occlusive lower extremity arterial disease from 2010 to 2019. Procedures in which an atherectomy device had been used as the primary or secondary device were classified as the atherectomy group. We calculated the frequency of atherectomy use over time and across geographic regions. Using regression modeling, we identified the factors that were independently associated with atherectomy use.

A total of 205,377 PVIs had been performed for 152,693 unique patients. During the 10-year period, 16.6% of the PVI procedures had used atherectomy, increasing from 8.5% in 2010 to 19.7% in 2019 (P_trend < .0001). Across 17 geographic regions, we found a significant difference in the prevalence of atherectomy use, ranging from 8.2% to 29%. The strongest predictor of atherectomy use was performance of PVI in an office setting (odds ratio [OR], 10.08; 95% confidence interval [CI], 9.17-11.09) or ambulatory center (OR, 4.0; 95% CI, 3.65-4.39) vs a hospital setting. The presence of severe (OR, 2.6; 95% CI, 2.4-2.85) or moderate (OR, 1.5; 95% CI, 1.4-1.69) lesion calcification was also predictive of atherectomy use. Other predictive factors included elective status, insurance provider, lesion length, prior PVI, claudication symptoms, and diabetes mellitus.

Atherectomy use in PVI significantly increased from 2010 to 2019. We found wide regional variability in the use of atherectomy that seemed to be driven more strongly by nonclinical factors.