Single-center experience of endovascular abdominal aortic aneurysm repair (EVAR) in patients not participating in the U.K. EVAR trials

The objective was to evaluate outcomes of a high-risk patient cohort following endovascular abdominal aortic aneurysm repair (EVAR) treatment not entered into the U.K. endovascular stent-graft aortic aneurysm repair trials (EVAR-1 or -2) because of equipoise absence but where EVAR was judged to be the most appropriate intervention option on compassionate grounds. A single-center retrospective analysis was performed involving all patients undergoing compassionate EVAR treatment during the EVAR-1 and -2 trial period. Over an 8-year period, 34 patients underwent compassionate EVAR procedure. The mean (SD) age was 76 (79) years. The mean (SD) preoperative physiology score (P-POSSUM) was 25 (8.3) with a mean (SD) predicted early mortality of 9.9% (16%). The actual early mortality in our study was 2.9% and morbidity was 35%. There were 8 cases of endoleak: type I (n = 2), type II (n = 5), and type IV (n = 1). Aneurysm-related mortality and all-cause mortality after 8 years were 5.8% and 23.5% respectively. Satisfactory outcome with low mortality (2.9%) and morbidity can be achieved in patients with compassionate indications, where clinicians judge EVAR to be an advantage over open abdominal aortic aneurysm repair. Based on our study, the early mortality (2.9%) in our compassionate EVAR group is comparable to EVAR-1 outcomes (1.7%) and better than EVAR-2 mortality results (9%). EVAR should therefore not be denied to a significant number of high-risk abdominal aortic aneurysm patients who fall between the EVAR-1 and EVAR-2 criteria.