Mortality and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in patients treated with endovascular revascularization of the infra-inguinal lower limb arteries from retrograde access

BACKGROUND: In this trial, our objective was to evaluate the relationship between long-term clinical outcomes in patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) treated with retrograde endovascular recanalization (ER) of chronic total occlusions (CTOs) regarding the infra-inguinal lower limb arteries and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). METHODS: A total of 834 consecutive subjects were enrolled in the study. The mean age was 67.8±10.6 years (62.6% males). COPD was diagnosed in 98 patients (11.7%). The infra-inguinal location included the deep, superficial and common femoral artery, popliteal artery or below the knee arteries. During follow-up, we evaluated major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events (MACCE) and major adverse limb events (MALE). MACCE was considered as death, stroke/transient ischemic attack, myocardial infarction, percutaneous coronary intervention or coronary artery bypass grafting operation, while MALE regarded amputation, target lesion re-intervention, target vessel re-intervention and surgical action. RESULTS: The mean follow-up was 1,144.9±664.3 days and the interquartile range was 1,110.5 (504.5–1,734.7). Data were collected between 2006 and 2016. We noticed significant differences in death rates among the COPD and non-COPD groups. The cumulative number of events (deaths) was 12.2%, 17.3%, 18.4%, 22.4%, 23.5%, 23.5% and 23.5% in the COPD group and 6.1%, 7.5%, 10.5%, 11.3%, 11.4% 11.5% and 11.5% in the non-COPD group after 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 years of follow-up, and was notably greater for COPD (P=0.0007). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with COPD and PAD treated with the ER and retrograde approach due to CTOs are related to higher mortality than non-COPD patients.