Background
Although women represent an increasing proportion of those presenting with abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) rupture, the current prevalence of AAA in women is unknown. The contemporary ...population prevalence of screen‐detected AAA in women was investigated by both age and smoking status.
Methods
A systematic review was undertaken of studies screening for AAA, including over 1000 women, aged at least 60 years, done since the year 2000. Studies were identified by searching MEDLINE, Embase and CENTRAL databases until 13 January 2016. Study quality was assessed using the Newcastle–Ottawa scoring system.
Results
Eight studies were identified, including only three based on population registers. The largest studies were based on self‐purchase of screening. Altogether 1 537 633 women were screened. Overall AAA prevalence rates were very heterogeneous, ranging from 0·37 to 1·53 per cent: pooled prevalence 0·74 (95 per cent c.i. 0·53 to 1·03) per cent. The pooled prevalence increased with both age (more than 1 per cent for women aged over 70 years) and smoking (more than 1 per cent for ever smokers and over 2 per cent in current smokers).
Conclusion
The current population prevalence of screen‐detected AAA in older women is subject to wide demographic variation. However, in ever smokers and those over 70 years of age, the prevalence is over 1 per cent.
Significant in older women who smoke
Objective To assess current knowledge for the management of ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), based on the 1-year outcomes of 3 recent randomised trials. Methods An individual patient data ...meta-analysis of three recent randomised trials of endovascular versus open repair, including 817 patients, was conducted according to a pre-specified analysis plan, report all-cause mortality and re-interventions at 1 year after the index event. Results Mortality across the 3 trials at 1-year was 38.6% for the EVAR or endovascular strategy patient groups and 42.8% for the open repair groups, pooled odds ratio 0.84 (95% CI 0.63–1.11), p = .209. There was no evidence of heterogeneity in the odds ratios between trials. When the patients in the endovascular strategy group of the IMPROVE trial were restricted to those with proven rupture who were anatomically suitable for endovascular repair, the pooled odds ratio reduced slightly to 0.80 (95% CI 0.56–1.16), p = .240. Conclusions After 1 year there is a consistent but non-significant trend for lower mortality for EVAR or an endovascular strategy. Taken together with the recent gains in health economic outcomes demonstrated at 1 year in the IMPROVE trial, the evidence suggests that endovascular repair should be used more widely for ruptured aneurysms.
Background
Single‐centre series of the management of patients with ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) are usually too small to identify clinical factors that could improve patient outcomes.
...Methods
IMPROVE is a pragmatic, multicentre randomized clinical trial in which eligible patients with a clinical diagnosis of ruptured aneurysm were allocated to a strategy of endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) or to open repair. The influences of time and manner of hospital presentation, fluid volume status, type of anaesthesia, type of endovascular repair and time to aneurysm repair on 30‐day mortality were investigated according to a prespecified plan, for the subgroup of patients with a proven diagnosis of ruptured or symptomatic AAA. Adjustment was made for potential confounding factors.
Results
Some 558 of 613 randomized patients had a symptomatic or ruptured aneurysm: diagnostic accuracy was 91·0 per cent. Patients randomized outside routine working hours had higher operative mortality (adjusted odds ratio (OR) 1·47, 95 per cent confidence interval 1·00 to 2·17). Mortality rates after primary and secondary presentation were similar. Lowest systolic blood pressure was strongly and independently associated with 30‐day mortality (51 per cent among those with pressure below 70 mmHg). Patients who received EVAR under local anaesthesia alone had greatly reduced 30‐day mortality compared with those who had general anaesthesia (adjusted OR 0·27, 0·10 to 0·70).
Conclusion
These findings suggest that the outcome of ruptured AAA might be improved by wider use of local anaesthesia for EVAR and that a minimum blood pressure of 70 mmHg is too low a threshold for permissive hypotension.
Useful lessons learned
Background
Clinical and imaging surveillance practices following endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) for intact abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) vary considerably and compliance with recommended ...lifelong surveillance is poor. The aim of this study was to develop a dynamic prognostic model to enable stratification of patients at risk of future secondary aortic rupture or the need for intervention to prevent rupture (rupture‐preventing reintervention) to enable the development of personalized surveillance intervals.
Methods
Baseline data and repeat measurements of postoperative aneurysm sac diameter from the EVAR‐1 and EVAR‐2 trials were used to develop the model, with external validation in a cohort from a single‐centre vascular database. Longitudinal mixed‐effects models were fitted to trajectories of sac diameter, and model‐predicted sac diameter and rate of growth were used in prognostic Cox proportional hazards models.
Results
Some 785 patients from the EVAR trials were included, of whom 155 (19·7 per cent) experienced at least one rupture or required a rupture‐preventing reintervention during follow‐up. An increased risk was associated with preoperative AAA size, rate of sac growth and the number of previously detected complications. A prognostic model using predicted sac growth alone had good discrimination at 2 years (C‐index 0·68), 3 years (C‐index 0·72) and 5 years (C‐index 0·75) after operation and had excellent external validation (C‐index 0·76–0·79). More than 5 years after operation, growth rates above 1 mm/year had a sensitivity of over 80 per cent and specificity over 50 per cent in identifying events occurring within 2 years.
Conclusion
Secondary sac growth is an important predictor of rupture or rupture‐preventing reintervention to enable the development of personalized surveillance intervals. A dynamic prognostic model has the potential to tailor surveillance by identifying a large proportion of patients who may require less intensive follow‐up.
Potential to tailor surveillance
Background
The benefits of endovascular repair of ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm remain controversial, without any strong evidence about advantages in specific subgroups.
Methods
An ...individual‐patient data meta‐analysis of three recent randomized trials of endovascular versus open repair of abdominal aortic aneurysm was conducted according to a prespecified analysis plan, reporting on results to 90 days after the index event.
Results
The trials included a total of 836 patients. The mortality rate across the three trials was 31·3 per cent for patients randomized to endovascular repair/strategy and 34·0 per cent for those randomized to open repair at 30 days (pooled odds ratio 0·88, 95 per cent c.i. 0·66 to 1·18), and 34·3 and 38·0 per cent respectively at 90 days (pooled odds ratio 0·85, 0·64 to 1·13). There was no evidence of significant heterogeneity in the odds ratios between trials. Mean(s.d.) aneurysm diameter was 8·2(1·9) cm and the overall in‐hospital mortality rate was 34·8 per cent. There was no significant effect modification with age or Hardman index, but there was indication of an early benefit from an endovascular strategy for women. Discharge from the primary hospital was faster after endovascular repair (hazard ratio 1·24, 95 per cent c.i. 1·04 to 1·47). For open repair, 30‐day mortality diminished with increasing aneurysm neck length (adjusted odds ratio 0·69 (95 per cent c.i. 0·53 to 0·89) per 15 mm), but aortic diameter was not associated with mortality for either type of repair.
Conclusion
Survival to 90 days following an endovascular or open repair strategy is similar for all patients and for the restricted population anatomically suitable for endovascular repair. Women may benefit more from an endovascular strategy than men and patients are, on average, discharged sooner after endovascular repair.
Strong evidence of equivalence
Vaginal length (VL), size and width may show individual differences among women. Hysterectomy causes VL shortening in patients, and this shortening varies according to the type of hysterectomy ...performed. Some studies in literature have shown that the shortened VL after hysterectomy may cause dyspareunia and have a negative effect on female sexuality. The aim of this study is to compare preoperative and postoperative vaginal lengths, vaginal shortening rate (VSR) not used before in the literature, and postoperative sexual functions according to hysterectomy types.
In the study, which included 136 55 Total Abdominal Hysterectomy (TAH), 33 Vaginal Hysterectomy (VH), 48 Total Laparoscopic Hysterectomy (TLH) sexually active patients under the age of 60 who underwent hysterectomy, the patients were divided into three groups according to the type of hysterectomy performed. Groups were compared in terms of demographic variables, preoperative/postop and control VL, vaginal shortening rate and The Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) scores.
Vaginal lengths measured after TLH was longer and vaginal lengths measured after VAH was shorter, the difference was significant (p < 0.01). VSRs were 15.9% in TAH group, 10.9% in VH group and 8.3% in TLH group (p < 0.05). Total FSFI score was higher in TLH group than TAH and VH group (p < 0.01). Group of VSR>15% had statistically significantly lower FSFI scores in lubrication, orgasm, pain and total score than both the VSR<10% group and the VSR 10–15% group (p < 0.05).
Calculating the VSR after hysterectomy instead of postoperative VL measurement will allow us to obtain more individual and accurate results in predicting postoperative sexual functions. We found that TLH is the best hysterectomy method in terms of preserving sexual functions due to less loss of vaginal tissue in the postoperative period from these three techniques that are frequently.
Peritonisation of mesh during Abdominal sacrocolpopexy is generally advocated to prevent adhesions to the viscera; however, randomized clinical trials are lacking. In this study; we aimed to ...investigate whether the mesh peritonisation is clinically significant or not.
Thirty-four patients who were operated for the reason of pelvic organ prolapse were included in the study. Patients were divided into two groups by retrospective scanning from the files and surgical reports. Group 1 patients consisted of those who underwent peritonisation and group 2 patients consisted of those who did not in abdominal sacrocolpopexy.
Operative time and the amount of blood lost were statistically less in the group 2. Postoperative pain and analgesic drug requirements were obviously higher in the group 1. Postoperative De novo dyspareunia and urinary urgency were higher in the group 1. There were no statistical differences between the groups in terms of other complications.
We noticed that there was no difference between the patients who were peritonized and those who were not in terms of postoperative complications.
To assess the authors' experiences in en bloc pelvic resection with concomitant rectosigmoid colectomy and primary anastomosis as a part of primary cytoreductive surgery for patients with advanced ...ovarian cancer.
Atotal of 22 patients with FIGO Stage IIB-IV epithelial ovarian cancer who underwent en bloc pelvic resection with anastomosis were retrospectively reviewed. Data analyses were carried out using SPSS 10.0 and descriptive statistics, Kaplan-Meier survival curves, and Log Rank (Mantel-Cox) test were used for statistical estimations.
Median age was 58.8 years. FIGO stage distribution of the patients was; one (4.5%) IIB, three (13.7%) IIC, three (13.7%) IIIA, six (27.3%) IIIB, and nine (40.9%) IIIC. Median peritoneal cancer index (PCI) was 8 (range 5-22) and optimal cytoreduction was achieved in 18 patients (81.8%) of whom 13 (59.1%) had no macroscopic residual disease (complete cytoreduction). There was no perioperative mortality. A total of nine complications occurred in seven (31.8%) patients. Anastomotic leakage was observed in one (4.5%) patient. There was no re-laparotomy. Mean follow-up time was 60 months. There were 15 (68.2%) recurrences of which 12 (80%) presented in extra-pelvic localizations. Mean disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OVS) were estimated as 43.6 and 50.5 months, respectively. Patients with complete cytoreduction had a better DFS (p = 0.006) and OVS (p = 0.003) than those with incomplete cytoreduction.
En bloc pelvic resection, as a part of surgical cytoreduction, seems to be a safe and effective procedure in many patients with advanced ovarian cancer if required. Despite relatively high general complication rate, anastomosis-related morbidity of this procedure is low as 0.8%. Nevertheless, surgical plan and perioperative care should be personalized according to medical and surgical conditions of the patient.
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