O5 Outcomes of vascular and endovascular interventions performed during the COVID-19 pandemic: The Vascular and Endovascular Research Network (VERN) COvid-19 Vascular sERvice (COVER) Tier 2 study

INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic forced rapid adaptations to healthcare provision. The COvid-19 Vascular sERvice (COVER) Study aimed to contemporaneously report outcomes for patients undergoing vascular interventions worldwide during the pandemic. METHODS: COVER is an international multi-centre observational cohort study of outcomes following vascular interventions during the pandemic. The primary outcome was to capture procedural information on all open and endovascular interventions undertaken. Secondary outcomes included in-hospital mortality and changes in management resulting from the pandemic. RESULTS: 1103 patients from 57 institutions in 19 countries were enrolled. Mean age was 66.9±13.9 (75·6% male). The rate of suspected/confirmed COVID-19 infection was 4·0%. Overall, in-hospital mortality was 11.0%. Aortic interventions had a mortality of 15·2% (23/151), amputations 12·1% (28/232), carotid interventions 10·7% (11/103) and lower limb revascularisation 9·8% (51/521). Increased risk of in-hospital mortality was noted for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lower respiratory tract infection, Caucasian ethnicity and those undergoing urgent/immediate surgery. Choice of procedure deviated from standard management in 7·1% cases. Adjusting for confounders, antiplatelet (OR 0·503 (0·273-0·928) and oral anticoagulant (OR 0·411 (0·205-0·824) reduced risk of in-hospital mortality. CONCLUSIONS: Patients undergoing vascular intervention during the pandemic had substantially higher overall and condition-specific mortality compared to pre-pandemic cohort reports, despite low COVID-19 infection rates.