title: Vascular surgical society of great britain and ireland: RETA: the registry of endovascular treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms
abstract: BACKGROUND: RETA is a voluntary registry within the UK established as a joint venture between radiologists and surgeons. The aim is to evaluate carefully the endovascular treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms during introduction into clinical practice. METHODS: Some 367 patients have been included in the registry from 23 centres since its inception on 1 January 1996. In the majority (82 per cent) an elective repair was performed for an asymptomatic aneurysm. The mean age of the patients was 71.9 years and 28 per cent were deemed unsuitable for conventional repair. One hundred and ninety-nine bifurcated (54 per cent), 18 tube (5 per cent) and 148 aortouni-iliac with crossover (40 per cent) stent graft types were placed. RESULTS: At the end of the procedure 77 per cent of aneurysms were excluded with no complications. Twenty-one patients (6 per cent) required conversion to open repair. Forty-four (12 per cent) required additional endovascular procedures. At 30 days 87 per cent of the aneurysms were excluded or repaired. The 30-day mortality rate was 7 per cent (n = 24) with a significant improvement between 1996 and 1997, from 11 to 4 per cent. There were 25 persistent leaks (7 per cent). The death rate was related to the fitness of patient, device used and requirement for conversion. One-year follow-up data are available for 140 patients. There have been 13 deaths (9 per cent), three ruptures (2 per cent) and some form of complication in 20 per cent of cases overall. CONCLUSION: Improving results have been demonstrated for the primary procedure. At present there is a relatively high complication rate and ruptures have occurred. Rigorous continued follow-up is required.
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Gaines
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Beard