Open AAA Repair Not Best Choice For Seniors
For older patients, endovascular repair of an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) offers long-term survival advantages over open repair, researchers found.
Among patients ages 65 and up, traditional surgical repair was associated with significantly higher risks of both all-cause and AAA-related death over a mean of about 2.5 years (P=0.01 and P<0.001, respectively), Rubie Sue Jackson, MD, MPH, of Georgetown University Hospital, and colleagues reported in the April 18 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
"Improved long-term survival was associated with reduction in perioperative deaths after endovascular repair," they wrote. "However, the survival advantage generated in the perioperative period persisted throughout the entire follow-up period, suggesting that, compared with open repair, endovascular repair was associated with similar protection against late AAA rupture."