Prognosis and Remodeling after Endovascular Repair for Acute, Subacute, and Chronic Type B Aortic Dissection

Purpose: Thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) for type B aortic dissection (TBAD) is already well introduced, but the best time point to perform TEVAR has not been defined. This study was to report mid- to long-term outcomes and aortic remodeling of TEVAR in patients with TBAD. Materials and Methods: In total, 318 TBAD patients from June 2001 to May 2016 were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were divided into 3 groups depending on interval between dissection onset to TEVAR: acute (0–7 days), subacute (8–30 days), and chronic (>30 days). Clinical and morphological data were collected and analyzed. Results: The follow-up aorta-related mortality rates in the 3 groups were 17.6%, 2.6%, 4.2%, and the proximal stent-induced new entry rates were 11.8%, 1.6%, 2.8%, respectively. Aortic remodeling was satisfied in both the acute and subacute group, but the false lumen diameter did not decrease (p>0.05) in the chronic group. Compared with the VIRTUE classification (acute, 0–14 days; subacute, 15–92 days; chronic, >92 days), mid- to long-term outcomes of patients within the first overlapped interval between the 2 classifications (8–14 days) were similar to that of subacute patients (15–30 days), while aortic remodeling of patients in the second overlapped interval (31–92 days) was similar to that of chronic patients (>92 days). Conclusions: This study suggests that TEVAR for subacute TBAD is associated with a low long-term rate of aorta-related death. Aortic remodeling of chronic dissections is not satisfactory. Additional results suggest that the subacute phase (8–30 days) may be the optimal time to perform TEVAR for uncomplicated TBAD.