Aortic remodelling after thoracic endovascular aortic repair for acute and subacute type B aortic dissection

Background: Thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) in the current era has gained widespread acceptance as the modality of choice for the treatment of complicated aortic dissection (AD). However, reports on clinical results of TEVAR treatment of AD patients are mainly comparisons and analyses of results between patients in the acute and chronic phases, few reports have described the postoperative aortic remodelling of patients with subacute AD after TEVAR. The aim of this study was to investigate aortic remodelling after TEVAR in acute and subacute Stanford type B AD patients. Methods: The clinical data of 38 Stanford type B AD patients who received TEVAR treatment in our hospital between July 2012 and December 2017 were retrospectively analysed. The maximum diameters of the aorta, the mean diameters of the true lumens (TLs) and the false lumens (FLs) of the aorta in the dissection range before and after TEVAR treatment were measured. All diameters between different groups or in the same group before and after therapy were compared using nonparametric tests. Count data were examined using the chi(2) test. Results: The 38 patients were 31.0-82.0 years old with a mean age of 57.0 +/- 11.0 years, including 31 men and 7 women, with 22 patients in the acute phase and 16 patients in the subacute phase. Among the 38 patients included in this study, 7 (18.4%) patients had endoleaks after treatment. No perioperative deaths occurred. Analyses of computed tomography angiography measurement results showed that the baseline maximum diameters of the aorta, TLs and FLs before TEVAR between the acute and subacute groups were not significantly different (P=0.193, P=0.301 and P=0.067, respectively). After TEVAR treatment, the maximum diameters of the aorta and the diameters of the FLs were different between the two groups (P=0.005 and P=0.012), but the diameters of the TLs were not (P=0.069). The diameters of the TLs increased, and those of FLs decreased significantly in the acute and subacute groups after TEVAR (P<0.001, P<0.001, P<0.001 and P=0.007, respectively); the maximum diameters of the aorta decreased significantly in the acute group (P<0.001), but they did not change obviously in the subacute group (P=0.121). Conclusions: TEVAR offers satisfactory results for the treatment of type B AD. Acute AD may be associated with better aortic remodelling compared to subacute AD after TEVAR.