Midterm Outcomes of Endovascular Versus Open Surgical Repair of Intact Descending Thoracic Aneurysms in Patients with Connective Tissue Disorders

Background: Data on the efficacy of endovascular thoracic endovascular aneurysm repair (TEVAR) versus open surgical repair for chronic aortic pathology in patients with connective tis-sue disorders are limited. In particular, few studies have examined outcomes of TEVAR versus open repair for intact descending thoracic aortic aneurysms (DTAA) in this subset of patients beyond index hospitalization. Therefore, we investigate 5-year outcomes of TEVAR and open surgical repair of intact DTAAs in patients with known connective tissue disorders.Methods: Using the TriNetX Data Network, a global federated database of over 75 million pa-tients, we conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients with connective tissue disorders and intact DTAAs, treated initially with either TEVAR or open surgery. Eligible patients were 1:1 propensity score-matched for several preoperative co-variates including demographics, sur-gical history, and comorbidities. We calculated and compared 5-year cumulative incidence and hazards of death, re-intervention, aortic dissection, renal failure, stroke, intracranial hemorrhage, paraplegia, and limb ischemia using the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazards models.Results: We identified 55 patients treated with TEVAR and 200 treated with open surgery. After matching, we compared 46 patients in each cohort. After matching, only incidence of re -intervention via endovascular approach was significantly higher among patients in the TEVAR cohort (27.1% vs. 4.8%, P 1/4 0.009). Rates and hazards of other outcomes were higher in the TEVAR group, however, differences were not statistically significant.Conclusions: Patients treated with TEVAR had numerically higher rates of adverse outcomes compared to open surgical patients, however only the difference in re-intervention rate was sta-tistically significant. Given the evolving landscape of endovascular intervention, greater-powered studies are needed to determine the safety and efficacy of TEVAR for intact DTAAs in a select subset of connective tissue disorder patients.