The role of delayed aortic surgery in type A aortic dissection and mesenteric ischemia: a systematic review and meta-analysis

INTRODUCTION: Approximately one third of patients with Acute Type A Aortic Dissection (ATAAD) present with pre-operative malperfusion syndromes (MPS). Of these, mesenteric malperfusion represents the greatest risk to patients with respect to increased short-term mortality. In select patients, it may be feasible to offer a staged approach by treating the mesenteric malperfusion first, optimizing the patient in the intensive care setting and then, following with a central aortic repair. The aim of this systematic review is to summarize cohort studies assessing the role of pre-operative interventions for mesenteric malperfusion. METHODS: An electronic literature search of five databases was performed to identify all relevant studies providing studies examining short-term mortality on patients who underwent either endovascular or open revascularisation of mesenteric ischemia prior to central aortic repair. The primary outcome was all-cause, short-term mortality. Secondary outcomes were comparative mortality between a delayed repair vs. aortic repair first strategy, rates of postoperative laparotomy, bowel resection, and mortality following delayed aortic repair. RESULTS: The search strategy identified 8 studies qualifying for inclusion, with a total of 180 patients who underwent delayed aortic surgery in the setting of mesenteric MPS. The weighted short-term mortality following a mesenteric revascularisation first, delayed aortic surgery strategy was 22.5%. This strategy was also associated with a significantly lower mortality than a central repair first strategy (OR 0.07, 95% CI 0.02–0.27), and a significantly lower rate of postoperative laparotomy/bowel resection (OR 0.05, 95% CI 0.02–0.14). If patients survive to receive central repair, the weighted short-term mortality postoperatively is low (2.1%). CONCLUSION: A summary of this evidence reveals a lower short-term mortality in hemodynamically stable patients with mesenteric malperfusion, along with a reduction in postoperative laparotomy/bowel resections. Of those patients who survive to receive central repair, short-term mortality remains very low in the select group of hemodynamically stable patients. Further high-quality studies with randomized or propensity matched data are required to verify these results. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13019-023-02341-y.