Elective repair of abdominal aortic aneurysm and the risk of colonic ischaemia: Systematic review and meta-analysis

Colon ischaemia (CI) is a significant complication of open (OR) and endovascular (EVAR) repair of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). With a rapid increase in EVAR uptake, contemporary data demonstrating the differing rates and outcomes of CI between EVAR and OR, particularly in the elective setting, are lacking. The aim was to characterise the risk and consequences of CI in elective AAA repair comparing EVAR with OR. Methods A systematic review and meta-analysis of the literature was performed using the Cochrane collaboration protocol and reported according to the PRISMA guidelines. PubMed, MedLine, and EMBASE were searched for studies reporting CI rates after elective AAA repair. Ruptured AAAs were excluded from analysis. Results Thirteen studies reporting specific outcomes of CI after elective AAA repair, containing 162,750 evaluable patients (78,151 EVAR and 84,599 OR) were included. All studies found a higher risk of CI with OR than with EVAR. Three studies performed confounder adjustment with CI rates of 0.5–1% versus 2.1–3.6% (EVAR vs. OR) and combined odds ratio of 2.7 (2.0–3.5) for the development of CI with OR versus EVAR. The majority of cases of CI occurred within 30 days and were associated with variable mortality (0–73%) and re-intervention rates (27–54%). GRADE assessment of evidence strength was very low for all outcomes. There was a high degree of heterogeneity between studies both methodologically and in terms of CI rates, re-intervention, mortality, and time to development of CI. Conclusions EVAR is associated with a reduced incidence of CI compared with OR