Tight systolic blood pressure control with combination therapy decreases type 2 endoleaks in patients undergoing endovascular aneurysm repair

Abstract BACKGROUND: Endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) has revolutionized the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) disease. However, the survival advantage is lost in the long term due the occurrence of endoleaks affecting the late rupture of aneurism sac. Few data are available on the role of blood pressure control in affecting the incidence of type 2 endoleaks in patients undergoing EVAR. OBJECTIVE: Aim of this study was to evaluated whether systolic blood pressure (SBP) control to target 130 mmHg reached after preoperative cardiology consultant might decrease the incidence of type II endoleak(T2E), sac expansion and related aortic reintervention after elective endovascular aneurysm repair(EVAR). METHODS: We analyzed 386 patients undergoing EVAR between 2008 and 2016. The primary endpoints were T2E, sac expansion and related aortic re-intervention or sac shrinkage during a median follow-up of 24 months [12-48]. The secondary endpoint was every cause of vascular or cardiac morbidity and mortality. RESULTS: The SBP value of 130 mmHg at the time of EVAR resulted, at ROC curve analysis, the most sensitive and specific for all the analyzed endpoints (T2E, n = 74; sac expansion n = 19; re-intervention, n = 10, sac shrinkage, n = 72). The combination antihypertensive therapy showed a significant inverse relationship with T2E occurrence. The incidence of primary endpoints was significantly higher (p < 0.001) in patients with SBP ≥ 130 mmHg. Cardiovascular death was significantly more prevalent (p < 0,001) in patients with SBP ≥130 mmHg. These findings were confirmed at the multivariable Cox regression analysis [primary endpoint HR = 0.09(0.06-0.15), p < 0.001; cardiovascular death HR = 0.33(0.12-0.85), p = 0.023]. CONCLUSIONS: Tight SBP control at the target of 130 mmHg at the time of elective EVAR significantly decreases TE2 occurrence, need of re-intervention and cardiovascular death in a prolonged follow-up of a large sample of patients.