Analysis of antibiotic strategies to prevent vascular graft or endograft infection after surgical treatment for infective native aortic aneurysms: a systematic review

INTRODUCTION: Some patients with an infective native aortic aneurysm (INAA) develop an aortic vascular graft or endograft infection (VGEI) even after successful open surgical repair or endovascular intervention. The aim of the systematic review and meta-analysis performed herein was to compare the clinical outcomes of different surgical and antibiotic treatment strategies. METHODS: We systematically searched PubMed, MEDLINE, EMBASE and Web of Science. The keywords used for the search were "mycotic aortic aneurysm", "infected aortic aneurysm", "infective native aortic aneurysm", "antibiotics", "surgery", and "endovascular". The search was limited to articles written in English and to studies involving humans. Articles published before 2000 were excluded. Case reports and review articles were excluded. RESULTS: Of the 524 studies retrieved from our search of the databases, 47 articles were included in this study. Among the 47 articles (1546 patients, 72.8% of whom were male) retrieved, five articles were excluded from the subgroup analysis because the data concerning open surgical repair and endovascular intervention could not be separated. The remaining 42 articles included a total of 1179 patients who underwent open surgical repair (622 patients) or endovascular intervention (557 patients) for INAA. There was a statistically significant difference (p = 0.001) in the pooled in-hospital mortality rate between the open surgical repair group (13.2%, 82/622) and the endovascular intervention group (7.2%, 40/557). However, there was a statistically significant difference (p < 0.001) in the aortic VGEI rate between the open surgical repair group (5.4%). 29/540) and endovascular intervention (13.3%, 69/517) group. For patients who underwent open surgical repair, a lower rate of aortic vascular graft infection was associated with long-term antibiotic use (p = 0.005). For patients who underwent endovascular intervention, there was a trend of association (p = 0.071) between the lower rate of aortic endograft infection and lifelong antibiotic use. CONCLUSION: Infective native aortic aneurysms are life-threatening. The pooled in-hospital mortality rate of the open surgical repair group was significantly higher than that of the endovascular intervention group, whereas the rate of the aortic VGEI in the open surgical repair group was significantly lower than that in the endovascular intervention group. Regardless of whether open surgical repair or endovascular intervention is performed, better long-term outcomes can be achieved with aggressive antibiotic treatment, which is especially important for patients who undergo endovascular intervention.