Echocardiographic Changes in Cardiac Function After Thoracic Endovascular Aortic Repair: A Systematic Review and...

Evidence suggests thoracic stent grafts increase the aortic stiffness postimplantation. Our objective was to examine the effect of thoracic aortic stenting on heart function, as demonstrated with echocardiography.

We considered nonrandomized studies examining echocardiographic parameters (left ventricle ejection fraction (LVEF), left ventricle end-diastolic (LVED) and end-systolic diameter (LVESD), posterior wall thickness (LVPWT), interventricular septal thickness (IVST), mass, and mass index) pre and poststent graft implantation in patients with thoracic aortic diseases (aneurysm, dissection, and blunt injury). MEDLINE and CENTRAL were searched (up to March 2021) for eligible studies. The National Institutes of Health Quality Assessment Tool was used for risk of bias assessment. Echocardiographic data pre and postimplantation were compared using the pooled standardized mean difference (SMD) and 95% confidence interval (CI).

Four studies were included in the meta-analysis. Three of the studies were judged to be "good" quality and one "fair". Nonsignificant differences pre and postimplantation were found for ejection fraction (SMD = -0.53, 95% CI = -1.8 to 0.728, P = 0.406), IVST (SMD = -0.79, 95%, CI = -3.25 to 1.66, P = 0.52), EDD (SMD = -0.10, 95% CI = -0.48 to 0.28, P = 0.60), ESD (SMD = -0.66, 95% CI = -2.35 to 1.02, P = 0.44), and PWT (SMD = -2.20, 95% CI = -5.89 to 1.47, P = 0.24). A trend toward an increase in mass postimplantation was found (SMD = 0.28, 95%, CI = -0.03 to 0.60, P = 0.08), but there was no significant difference in mass index (SMD = 0, 95%, CI = -0.195 to 0.195, P = 1).

Thoracic aortic stenting does not appear to significantly impact cardiac physiology as indicated by echocardiographic parameters.