Mid-Term Outcomes of Chimney Endovascular Aortic Aneurysm Repair: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: To provide an overview of the literature on the mid-term outcomes of chimney EVAR (ChEVAR) for the treatment of juxtarenal abdominal aortic aneurysms (JAAA).

METHODS: Different electronic databases were searched for published articles up to January 2020. The eligibility criteria were studies describing mid- or long-term outcomes of chimney EVAR (mean follow-up at least 1 year) for treatment of JAAA, including more than 10 cases, published in English, and with full text available. The outcomes measure were overall survival rate, target vessel patency, and freedom from reintervention at 3 years. Quality of the included studies was analyzed using the MINORS criteria. Pooled effect estimates were analyzed using random-effect models and heterogeneity was tested using I2 statistics.

RESULTS: Thirteen articles met the inclusion criteria. The included studies described 1,019 patients. According to the quality assessment, methodological quality was moderate to poor. The pooled overall survival, freedom from reintervention, and target vessel patency at 3 year was 81.4 % (95%CI 73.8-87.9), 85.7% (95%CI 75.6-93.5), and 95.1% (95%CI 89.3-98.7) respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: The results of this review show good to acceptable short and mid-term survival and good mid-term durability, which supports that ChEVAR as a suitable alternative in high-risk JAAA. However, proper patient selection for ChEVAR seems essential to attain good mid-term outcomes, and further large prospective and good quality studies are required to demonstrate its long-term results and enable conclusions on specific determinants for outcome.