Outcomes of endovascular repair of infrarenal penetrating aortic ulcers.

Background: To report technical success as well as perioperative outcomes of patients who underwent endovascular aortic repair (EVAR) of penetrating abdominal aortic ulcers ≤35 mm in diameter (PAU). Patients and methods: The abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) quality registry of the German institute for vascular research (DIGG) was used to identify patients with standard EVAR for infrarenal PAU ≤35 mm between 1/1/2019 and 12/31/2021. Infectious, traumatic, inflammatory PAUs, PAUs associated with connective tissue disease, PAUs following aortic dissection as well as true aneurysms were excluded. Demographics, cardiovascular comorbidity, technical success as well as perioperative morbidity and mortality were determined. Results: Amongst 11 537 patients who underwent EVAR during the study period, 405 with PAU ≤35 mm were eligible from 95 participating hospitals across Germany (22% women, 20.5% octogenarians). The median aortic diameter was 30 mm (Interquartile range 27-33). Cardiovascular comorbidities were frequent with coronary artery disease (34.8%), chronic heart failure (30.9%), history of myocardial infarction (19.8%), hypertension (76.8%), diabetes (21.7%), smoking (20.8%), history of stroke (9.4%), symptomatic lower extremity peripheral arterial disease (20%), chronic kidney disease (10.4%) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (9.6%). Most patients were asymptomatic (89.9%). Among the symptomatic patients, 13 presented with distal embolization (3.2%) and 3 with contained ruptures (0.7%). Technical success of endovascular repair was 98.3%. Both, percutaneous (37.1%) or femoral cut-down access approaches (58.5%) were registered. Endoleaks of any type were present with type 1 (0.5%), type 2 (6.4%) and type 3 (0.3%) endoleaks. Overall mortality was 0.5%. Perioperative complications occurred in 12 patients (3.0%). Conclusions: According to this registry data, endovascular repair of PAU is technically feasible with acceptable perioperative outcomes, but further studies investigating mid- and long-term data are needed before invasive treatment of PAU disease in an elderly and comorbid patient population should be recommended.

[Ultrasound screening for abdominal aortic aneurysms - a rational measure to prevent sudden rupture]. / Ultraschall-Screening auf abdominelle Aortenaneurysmen.

The ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) has still a high hospital mortality rate of about 50 % (intervention and non-corrective treatment combined). With an easy non-invasive and inexpensive measure such as the ultrasound screening rupture threatened aneurysms can be recognized in time and then treated prophylactically, hemorrhagic shock can be avoided. Screening programs in England and Sweden currently describe an AAA prevalence of 1.5 % among screened 65-year-old males. With an absolute risk reduction for aneurysm-related death of 15.1 per 10,000 men invited for screening and a cost of £ 7,370 per quality-adjusted life year (QALY), screening for this target group is highly cost-effective. Comprehensive AAA screening requires defined criteria for the quality of the aortic ultrasound examination and for the surgical treatment of detected large AAA. These interventions should be concentrated in centers obligated to quality registry documentation. Patients with smaller AAA, requiring no repair, should be included in a surveillance program, also with registry of their long-term data.