Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Is Not an Independent Marker for Adverse Outcomes in Endograft Repair of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms

A significant proportion of patients undergoing endograft repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) suffer from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We report here our experience and analysis of 342 consecutive AAA endograft repairs in patients with and without COPD (137, or 39%, of patients with COPD and 55, or 16%, with moderate to severe COPD). Patient outcomes such as perioperative mortality, length of admission, intensive care unit admission, congestive heart failure, myocardial infarction, conversion to open surgery, duration of surgery, postoperative endoleaks, and combined respiratory complications were analyzed; differences were not statistically significant compared to patients without COPD (p > 0.05). Endograft repair of AAA demonstrated equivalent outcomes in patients with and without COPD.