Better endografts mean fewer reinterventions for endovascular AAA

Dr. Mustafa Al-Jubouri and his colleagues assessed reinterventions and outcomes after EVAR and open AAA repair over a long time period, and found decreasing rates of reintervention after EVAR, which they attribute to improvements in technology from first to third and later-generation devices. I would concur with the one discussant, that some of the decrease may also be due to the understanding that not all type II endoleaks require repair. Further, much of the decrease may be due to physician experience – both with appropriate patient and device selection, and technical expertise, including with deployment. However, regardless of the underlying reason for the improvement in the reintervention rate, it is heartening that reintervention is decreasing as physicians become more facile, and industry provides technological improvements to the devices.

Dr. Linda Harris, FACS, is division chief and program director of vascular surgery at State University of New York, Buffalo. Dr. Harris has no disclosures