title: The association between co-morbidity and mortality after abdominal aortic aneurysm endografting in patients ineligible for elective open surgery.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate whether co-morbidity affects mortality after endovascular stenting in patients who are fit and unfit for open surgery.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were obtained from the EUROSTAR registry. The association between co-morbidity and mortality was examined by Cox proportional hazards models.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Between 1994 and July 2000, 2862 patients underwent aneurysm stenting; 381 were unfit for open surgery. The early/late mortality rates for patients fit for surgery, patients unfit for surgery and patients unfit for anaesthesia were 2.7/5.2%, 5.1/11.4% (p=0.035/p<0.0001) and 3.7/11.0% (NS/p=0.016), respectively. The survival curves among patients with poor medical condition were significantly worse than in those patients with a good medical condition (p=0.001). The presence or absence of co-existing diseases did not affect the mortality rate in patients unfit for open surgery. The age-adjusted mortality risks of patients fit for open surgery and pulmonary disease or diabetes mellitus were 1.41 (1.02-1.95) and 1.75 (1.12-2.74), respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients with co-morbidity had a significantly higher mortality after aortic endografting compared with patients fit for open surgery. Co-morbidity did not increase mortality after endovascular abdominal repair in patients unfit for open surgery. Endovascular repair of abdominal aortic aneurysm seems to have a limited benefit in patients unfit for open surgery.
authors.affiliation: Section of Vascular Surgery, Hospital Clínic, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Riambau
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Laheij
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: García-Madrid
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sánchez-Espin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D017544:Aortic Aneurysm, Abdominal / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy*; D019917:Blood Vessel Prosthesis Implantation / Q000379:methods; D006328:Cardiac Catheterization / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D015897:Comorbidity; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007674:Kidney Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D008171:Lung Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009426:Netherlands; D011336:Probability; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012042:Registries; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D015607:Stents; D016019:Survival Analysis