First long-term evidence supporting endovascular repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms

Abstract

Evaluation of: Lederle FA, Freischlag JA, Kyriakides TC et al.; OVER Veterans Affairs Cooperative Study Group. Long-term comparison of endovascular and open repair of abdominal aortic aneurysm. N. Engl. J. Med. 367(21), 1988–1997 (2012).

The traditional method of treating abdominal aortic aneurysms with open surgical repair has been steadily replaced by endovascular repair, thought to be a more minimally invasive approach. It is not known, however, whether the endovascular approach is truly less invasive for operative physiology; in addition, this approach has a different spectrum of complications. As such, it is uncertain whether elective endovascular repair of nonruptured aortic aneurysms reduces long-term morbidity and mortality compared with traditional open approaches. In this article, the authors evaluate a recent publication investigating long-term outcomes of a prospective randomized multicenter trial evaluating patients with asymptomatic abdominal aortic aneurysms treated with either endovascular or open repair, and discuss the results in the context of current evidence.

Keywords::

• AAA
• abdominal aortic aneurysm
• aneurysm
• endovascular repair
• long-term follow-up
• open repair
• OVER trial

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This work was supported in part by the NIH (grant: R01-HL095498 to A Dardik). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.