Balloon angioplasty compared with stenting for treatment of femoropopliteal occlusive disease: A meta-analysis

Background

The goal of this study was to review the currently available literature and to compare the short and long-term results of primary stenting and angioplasty of femoropopliteal occlusive disease by performing a meta-analysis review.

Methods

A systematic review of the literature that was published between September 2000 and January 2007 was performed. All studies that reported data on the long-term results after balloon dilatation or stent implantation were included if at least one-year primary patency or restenosis rate was presented; the study follow-up was at least 1 year and the number of subjects at the start of study was at least 20 patients. Three investigators independently extracted the data. The Pooled survival curves were then constructed for graft patency according to a random-effects protocol for meta-analysis.

Results

Twenty-four articles were initially identified but only seven were selected and included in this meta-analysis: seven were RCTs publications and one was a retrospective study comparing the outcome of angioplasty and stenting of the femoropopliteal segment. In our meta-analysis, there were a total of 934 patients with 452 patients who underwent balloon angioplasty (273 patients were male) and 482 patients who underwent stenting (297 patients were male). Primary patency at 1-year and postoperative ABI post intervention was used to evaluate the pooled odds ratio (OR) of all studies. The pooled OR of all studies estimate for the 12-month patency rates was 0.989 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.623 to 1.570, P = .962) showing no difference in outcome between the two groups (SE 0.269% to 1.025%). The pooled OR estimate for the postoperative ABI was 0.869 (95% CI, 0.557 to 1.357, P = .561) showing a slight advantage in favor of the angioplasty group but the P value was not statistically significant (SE 0.282% to 1.326%). The 1-year primary patency rates following balloon angioplasty ranged from 45% to 84.2% and at 2 years it varied from 25% to 77.2%. In the stent implantation group, the 1-year primary patency rates varied from 63% to 90%, and 2-year primary patency ranged from 46% to 87%. Heterogeneity was seen among studies, and publication bias could not be excluded.

Conclusions

The results of our meta-analysis suggest that stent placement in the femoropopliteal occlusive disease does not increase the patency rate when compared with angioplasty alone at 1 year. This conclusion should be viewed in the light of study-design considerations and all limitations in this meta-analysis that may have an impact of the outcome of stenting and angioplasty after a 1-year follow-up.