Ten-Year Data Presented at ISET Support EVAR Versus Surgery for Ruptured AAAs

January 22, 2013—In a poster presentation at ISET 2013: The 25th annual International Symposium on Endovascular Therapy in Miami Beach, Florida, a 10-year study suggested that patients with ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms are more than twice as likely to survive if they have endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) than if they have open surgery.

According to an ISET press release, the study involved 106 patients who had abdominal aortic aneurysm repair between 2002 and 2012. Of these patients, 75 had open surgery and 31 had EVAR. Overall mortality was higher for surgery patients, with 49 (68%) dying within 30 days versus 10 (32%) of those who had EVAR. After 1 year, 12.5% of surgery patients were alive versus 56% of EVAR patients. Most deaths were caused by a coexisting health condition.

“Many of these patients are frail, with a variety of health issues, and a minimally invasive solution is by far the best option,” commented Sherif Sultan, MD, in the ISET announcement. “We found 85% of patients are suitable for minimally invasive aneurysm repair, and in those patients, EVAR should always be the first option.” Dr. Sultan, who is an endovascular surgeon at the University College Hospital Galway in Galway, Ireland, concluded, “EVAR should be the first-line option for most patients with a ruptured aneurysm, and the sicker the patient, the more he or she will benefit from this far-less-invasive procedure.”