Causes of late mortality after endovascular and open surgical repair of infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysms

Introduction: Several reports suggest unexpectedly high rates of late abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) rupture occur after endovascular AAA repair (EVAR). However, a population-based study examining causes of late death after EVAR vs open surgical repair has not been performed. Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study of patients undergoing infrarenal AAA repair using information from the Medicare inpatient hospital discharge records (MedPAR files), physician claim files (Part B files, 20% sample), and Medicare Denominator Files for the years 2001 to 2004. Using the Social Security Death Index, we identified all "late" deaths, defined as deaths occurring >30 days and after hospital discharge. We used the National Death Index to identify cause of death information; in particular, those deaths that were likely caused by late rupture. We compared causes of late death and survival between EVAR and open repair using Wilcoxon log-rank and rank-sum tests. Results: Between 2001 and 2004, 13,971 patients underwent AAA repair (6119 EVAR, 7852 open repair). After a mean follow-up of 1.6 years in the EVAR cohort and 1.9 years in the open cohort, mortality rates were similar across repair type (15.4% EVAR, 15.9% open repair), with an adjusted odds ratio for death after open repair of 0.98 (95% confidence interval, 0.90-1.07). Of the 2194 documented deaths, 523 occurred before discharge or <= 30 days, and 1671 occurred >30 days and after hospital discharge. Cause of death information for the 1671 late deaths was available from the National Death Index for 1515 (91%). The 15 most common codes for causes of late death were dominated by cardiac disease (atherosclerotic heart disease, acute myocardial infarction) and pulmonary disease (lung cancer, respiratory failure). Causes of late death with specific mention of aneurysm were identified in 37 patients (2.4% of all deaths), but this event was not more common in EVAR or open repair (15 [0.3%] in the EVAR group, 22 [0.3%], in the open repair group; P = .71). Conclusions: Late deaths from aneurysm rupture after EVAR or open repair appear to be relatively infrequent and similarly distributed across procedure type. Our results emphasize that the effectiveness of EVAR is comparable to open AAA repair in preventing aneurysm-related death. (J Vase Surg 2010;51:1340-7.)