1. A Dedicated Surveillance Program Improves Compliance with Endovascular Aortic Aneurysm Repair Follow-up
- Author
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Peter Alden, Nedaa Skeik, Jade Cohen, Andrew H. Cragg, Jason Q. Alexander, Akila Pai, Elliot Stephenson, Jesse Manunga, Jessica Titus, and Timothy M. Sullivan
- Subjects
Diagnostic Imaging ,Male ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Time Factors ,Endoleak ,Psychological intervention ,Kaplan-Meier Estimate ,030204 cardiovascular system & hematology ,Single Center ,Disease-Free Survival ,Blood Vessel Prosthesis Implantation ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Aneurysm ,Predictive Value of Tests ,Risk Factors ,Intervention (counseling) ,medicine ,Humans ,030212 general & internal medicine ,Practice Patterns, Physicians' ,Aged ,Retrospective Studies ,Aged, 80 and over ,Retrospective review ,Aortic aneurysm repair ,business.industry ,General surgery ,Incidence (epidemiology) ,Endovascular Procedures ,General Medicine ,medicine.disease ,Aortic Aneurysm ,Surgery ,Treatment Outcome ,Background current ,Practice Guidelines as Topic ,Retreatment ,Female ,Guideline Adherence ,Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine ,business ,Program Evaluation - Abstract
Current recommendations suggest lifetime follow-up for endovascular aortic aneurysm repair (EVAR) patients to avoid consequences associated with endoleak and aneurysm enlargement. Follow-up compliance has been reported between 43% and 92%, with most single-center studies citing successful follow-up surveillance at less than 60%. We investigated follow-up completeness with a defined surveillance program and subsequent secondary intervention prevalence from a single center.Our surveillance program notified patients of the need for follow-up imaging and surgeon review. Data were obtained from retrospective review of a prospective database, including operative and follow-up details, follow-up imaging completeness, endoleak incidence, and secondary intervention prevalence.Five hundred seventeen patients received elective EVAR from 2005 to 2015. Surveillance was achieved in 425 (82.3%). Mean number of follow-up studies was 4.2 ± 2.9 and median time to first follow-up was 36 days. Four hundred forty-eight patients (86.7%) had freedom from intervention. Sixty-nine unique patients (13.3%) had 107 secondary interventions. Median time to first secondary intervention in 69 patients was 476 days. Mean number of imaging studies for secondary intervention patients was 6.1 ± 3.9, compared with mean 3.4 ± 2.3 for patients without (P 0.001). Overall mortality was 24.6% (n = 127), including 32 deaths of unknown cause (6.2% overall) and 95 of non-EVAR-related causes (18.3%). No aneurysm-related deaths were reported.Regular post-EVAR surveillance through a dedicated program resulted in a high rate of follow-up compliance, 13.3% rate of secondary intervention, and low aneurysm-related mortality. Careful lifetime surveillance remains important in long-term care following elective EVAR.
- Published
- 2017
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