Abdominal aortic aneurysm: endovascular grafts offer a potential alternative to surgery.
Endovascular grafts are a new, experimental surgery for AAAs that alleviates the need for open abdominal surgery. They offer an important alternative for high risk patients who would be at a greater risk with the more invasive surgical procedure. However, this is based on limited evidence, and more randomized controlled trials are needed. The procedure may be cheaper than open surgery, because of the lengthy hospital stay and operating room time with the latter, provided that the costs of the devices are low enough. However, there is insufficient data on the outcomes with endovascular grafts in different patient groups. As with many new or minimally invasive techniques, there is a "learning curve" which will affect costs and outcomes. Endovascular grafting is no exception, and repeated practical applications are needed for competence, expertise and good outcomes. Continued monitoring of this technique is needed. A registry of elective AAA patients now has 10-year follow-up data on about a third of the Canadian patients operated on in 1988. Further development of such registries will provide more accurate information on success rates, costs, and long-term complications.
D017544:Aortic Aneurysm, Abdominal / Q000601:surgery*; D019917:Blood Vessel Prosthesis Implantation / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D002170:Canada; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D004180:Direct Service Costs; D006801:Humans; D019060:Minimally Invasive Surgical Procedures / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D015607:Stents; D013673:Technology Assessment, Biomedical; D016896:Treatment Outcome