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Early postoperative mortality is lower after endovascular stent-grafting than after open repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs), but long-term comparative outcomes are unclear. In this observational study, researchers examined Medicare claims data (patient age, ≥67) from 2001 to 2004 for about 30,000 patients who underwent endovascular repair and 32,000 who underwent open repair. To account for baseline differences between groups, the researchers used statistical techniques to create endovascular and open-repair cohorts (each with 23,000 patients) that were similar in age, sex, and comorbidities.
Thirty-day mortality was 1.2% after endovascular repair and 4.8% after open repair. This difference disappeared gradually during 3 years, resu…