Image Fusion During Standard and Complex Endovascular Aortic Repair, to Fuse or Not to Fuse? A Meta-analysis and Additional Data From a Single-Center Retrospective Cohort

PURPOSE: To determine if image fusion will reduce contrast volume, radiation dose, and fluoroscopy and procedure times in standard and complex (fenestrated/branched) endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A search of the PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane databases was performed in December 2019 to identify articles describing results of standard and complex EVAR procedures using image fusion compared with a control group. Study selection, data extraction, and assessment of the methodological quality of the included publications were performed by 2 reviewers working independently. Primary outcomes of the pooled analysis were contrast volume, fluoroscopy time, radiation dose, and procedure time. Eleven articles were identified comprising 1547 patients. Data on 140 patients satisfying the study inclusion criteria were added from the authors’ center. Mean differences (MDs) are presented with the 95% confidence interval (CI). RESULTS: For standard EVAR, contrast volume and procedure time showed a significant reduction with an MD of −29 mL (95% CI −40.5 to −18.5, p<0.001) and −11 minutes (95% CI −21.0 to −1.8, p<0.01), respectively. For complex EVAR, significant reductions in favor of image fusion were found for contrast volume (MD −79 mL, 95% CI −105.7 to −52.4, p<0.001), fluoroscopy time (MD −14 minutes, 95% CI −24.2 to −3.5, p<0.001), and procedure time (MD −52 minutes, 95% CI −75.7 to −27.9, p<0.001). CONCLUSION: The results of this meta-analysis confirm that image fusion significantly reduces contrast volume, fluoroscopy time, and procedure time in complex EVAR but only contrast volume and procedure time for standard EVAR. Though a reduction was suggested, the radiation dose was not significantly affected by the use of fusion imaging in either standard or complex EVAR.