This study clearly depicts that the The novel respiratory syndrome coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has forced healthcare systems to delay elective abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repair. The present study provides a structured analysis of the decision to delay AAA repair and quantify the potential for harm. A decision tree was constructed modeling immediate AAA repair relative to an initial nonoperative (delayed repair) approach. The risk of COVID-19 contraction and mortality, AAA rupture, and operative mortality were considered. We performed a deterministic sensitivity analysis for a range of patient ages (50 to >80 years), probability of COVID-19 infection (0.01%-30%), AAA size (5.5 to >7cm), and time horizons (3-9 months). We then performed a probabilistic sensitivity analysis for three representative ages (60, 70, 80 years). Analyses were conducted for endovascular aortic aneurysm repair (EVAR) and open surgical repair (OSR).Patients with AAAs >7 cm demonstrated a greater probability of survival with immediate EVAR or OSR compared with delayed repair for patients.
Reference link- https://www.jvascsurg.org/article/S0741-5214(20)31931-5/fulltext
