Elsevier

The Annals of Thoracic Surgery

Volume 96, Issue 6, December 2013, Pages 2129-2134
The Annals of Thoracic Surgery

Original article
Adult cardiac
The Role of Age in Complicated Acute Type B Aortic Dissection

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.athoracsur.2013.06.056Get rights and content

Background

Complicated acute type B aortic dissection (cABAD) generally requires urgent intervention. Advanced age is a risk factor for mortality after thoracic aortic intervention, including surgery for aortic dissection. The purpose of this study was to investigate the exact impact of increasing age on the management and outcomes of cABAD.

Methods

We analyzed the outcomes of 583 patients with cABAD enrolled in the International Registry of Acute Aortic Dissection (IRAD) between 1996 and 2012. All patients with cABAD were categorized according to age by decade and management type (medical, surgical, or endovascular treatment), and outcomes were subsequently investigated in the different age groups.

Results

The mean age of the cohort was 63.4 ± 14.2 years, 36% of patients (n = 209) were greater than 70 years of age and 64% (n = 374) were less than 70 years. The utilization of surgery and endovascular techniques progressively decreased with patient age, while the rate of medical management significantly increased with age (p < 0.001). The in-hospital mortality rates for complicated patients younger than 70 years versus 70 years or more were 10.1% versus 30.0% for endovascular treatment (p = 0.001), 17.2% versus 34.2% for surgical treatment (p = 0.027), and 14.2% versus 32.2% for medical treatment (p = 0.001). Age 70 years or greater was a predictor of in-hospital mortality in multivariate analysis (odds ratio 2.37, 95% confidence interval: 1.23 to 4.54, p = 0.010).

Conclusions

Advanced age has a dramatic impact on the management and outcomes of patients with cABAD. A nonsignificant trend toward lower mortality after endovascular management was observed, both for younger patients and for elderly patients.

Section snippets

Patient Selection

The IRAD registry is an ongoing multicenter registry that includes patients with AAD at 30 large referral centers; its rationale and methods have previously been described [11]. For the present study, we included all patients with cABAD enrolled in the IRAD registry between January 1996 and October 2012. We defined cABAD as one or more of the following complications: shock, periaortic hematoma, spinal cord ischemia, preoperative mesenteric ischemia/infarction, acute renal failure, limb

Demographics and Medical History

Among the 1,348 ABAD patients enrolled in the IRAD registry, 583 patients presented with complications (43.8%). The mean age of complicated ABAD patients was 63.4 ± 14.2 years (Fig 1); 36% of patients (n = 209) were aged 70 years or more and 64% (n = 374) were younger than 70 years. The mean age of patients treated with medical management was 67.8 ± 13.1 years, versus 59.1 ± 14.9 years for patients undergoing surgery, and 61.2 ± 13.5 years for patients treated with endovascular management (p <

Comment

Our analysis shows that increasing patient age has a dramatic impact on the management and outcomes of cABAD. The rate of surgical or endovascular interventions progressively decreased with age whereas the rate of medical management significantly increased with age. There was a nonsignificant trend toward lower mortality after endovascular treatment, but patients older than 70 years had a significantly increased mortality rate, irrespective of the type of management.

Although patients with

References (35)

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