The shortfall in long-term survival of patients with repaired thoracic or abdominal aortic aneurysms: retrospective case-control analysis of hospital episode statistics.

OBJECTIVE: To report the contemporary life expectancy of patients undergoing abdominal (AAA) or thoracic aortic aneurysm (TAA) repair in England, relative to a healthy control population. METHODS: A retrospective observational case-control study was carried out of Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data, an administrative dataset covering the entire English National Health Service. Patients undergoing elective repair of an abdominal or thoracic aortic aneurysm in an English NHS hospital between April 2006 and March 2011 were included. Outcome measures were 5-year all-cause mortality (in- and out-of-hospital) and adverse cardiovascular events (myocardial infarction, stroke, emergency amputation or limb revascularisation). RESULTS: 19,505 AAA and 730 TAA repairs were identified, with 75,260 and 2,721 control participants, respectively, and 27.5 (1.0-60.0) months' median (range) follow-up. Five-year survival was 67.4% for AAA against 81.1% for control participants, and 65.3% for TAA against 89.1% for control participants (p < .001). Freedom from adverse cardiovascular events was 86.1% for AAA against 93% for control participants and 89.1% for TAA against 94.4% for control participants (p < .001). CONCLUSION: Long-term survival remains poor after aneurysm repair and adverse cardiovascular events are common relative to the wider population. Further research is required to characterise and optimise cardiovascular risk prevention in patients with aortic aneurysms.