Long-Term Thoracic Endovascular Repair Follow-Up from 1999 to 2019: A Single-Center Experience

Thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) was introduced in the early 1990s and long-term follow-up studies are warranted in current guidelines.

Patients undergoing TEVAR were consecutively included from 1999 to 2019. Thoracic aortic disease includes thoracic aortic aneurysms, aortic dissection, traumatic rupture, penetrating aortic ulcer (PAU), and intramural hematoma (IMH). Our prospective database recorded baseline characteristics, endoleak or aneurysm growth, and death. Patients were included at the time of treatment and censored at death or first reintervention depending on the analysis. Primary end point was all-cause death; secondary end point was reintervention. Survival and failure analyses were done using STATA IC 16.0 and truncated at 15 years of follow-up.

Two hundred and fifty six patients were included and 63% were men. Their mean age at intervention was 66.2 ± 14.5 years and they were followed for a mean of 5.2 ± 4.5 years. Indications for TEVAR were acute aortic syndrome in 40.6%, chronic aortic disease in 44.5%, and traumatic rupture in 14.8%. Technical success was seen in 94.1% of the operations, and the left subclavian artery was covered in 27.7%. A 30-day mortality rate was 21.2% (22/104) and 1.75% (2/114) (P < 0.001) for urgent and elective patients, respectively. Twelve patients (4.7%) died within 24 hr of treatment. Overall, long-term mortality recorded 112 (43.8%) deaths, 29 patients had reinterventions (11.3 %, 95% confidence interval: 7.7-15.9), and aneurysms accounted for 62.1% of all reinterventions. Twenty four (82.8%) reinterventions occurred within the first 5 years.

This long-term follow-up study shows excess mortality in patients treated for acute aortic syndrome compared to chronic aortic disease, within the first 30 days; this difference diminishes at the end of follow-up. Most endoleaks occur within the first 5 years, although new endoleaks continue to develop decades after in previous endoleak-free patients calling for lifelong surveillance.