Comparing outcomes of endovascular intervention vs bypass surgery for patients with chronic/critical limb ischemia

Chronic Limb Threat Ischemia (CLTI) is a severe form of peripheral arterial disease characterized by various symptoms including nonhealing wounds, ulcers and gangrene ultimately leading to a possible amputation. Therefore, revascularization either through endovascular intervention (EVI) or surgical bypass (SB) is an important step in management. Literature review of various studies including Randomized clinical trials (RCTs), Meta-analysis and observational studies show varied results with some studies suggesting better outcomes with EVI while majority of the others favors superiority of SB. Our Systematic review and meta-analysis aims to ascertain underlying differences between the approaches.

We performed a Meta-analysis of observational studies and RCTs following the PRISMA guidelines. We searched Pubmed, and Cochrane databases. After removing duplicates and studies that did not meet the inclusion criteria, 9 studies were included which comprised of 4 RCTs and 5 observational studies. Outcomes measured include limb salvage, amputation free survival and Mortality. Random effects were applied to calculate Odds ratio (OR) and 95 % confidence Intervals (CI).

A total of 6375 patients from 9 studies were included. The pooled analysis from the meta-analysis comparing Endovascular intervention vs Surgical Bypass showed no statistically significant difference between the outcomes. The Pooled OR was 0.990(95%CI 0.913-1.073). Additionally the heterogeneity among the studies was moderate (i² = 34.7 %) suggesting some variability in the study results but not enough to conclude a significant difference. Additionally subgroup analysis was performed for above-knee and infra popliteal interventions which yielded statistically similar results.

Based on the results above, neither endovascular intervention nor bypass surgery showed superiority over the other for outcomes such as limb salvage, mortality and amputation free survival. Therefore, effectiveness of both interventions for revascularization is comparable.