Thoracic Aortic Injury in Japan - Nationwide Retrospective Cohort Study -

Background: The epidemiology of traumatic thoracic aortic injury has not been reported in many countries, so we investigated the current trends in Japan. Methods and Results: Patients with traumatic thoracic aortic injury from July 2007 to March 2013 were identified using a Japanese nationwide administrative database, the Diagnosis Procedure Combination inpatient database. The trends in crude in-hospital mortality and proportion of endovascular repair use among patients with repair were evaluated over time. A total of 617 incident cases of thoracic aortic injury were identified at 234 hospitals, and categorized into endovascular repair (n=126), open repair (n=76), and non-repair (n=415) groups. The in-hospital mortality rate for each of these groups was 5.6%, 15.8%, and 45.3%, respectively. The in-hospital survival rate was higher in the endovascular repair group than in the open repair group (log-rank chi(2)=4.9; P=0.03). Although the crude in-hospital mortality did not change significantly during the study period (Mantel-Haenszel trend test, P=0.10), the proportion of endovascular repair use among all repair cases increased significantly (P<0.001). Conclusions: The results of the present nationwide study suggest that the endovascular approach to treatment of thoracic aortic injury in Japan gained in popularity from 2007 to 2012.