A Meta-Analysis for Postoperative Alternations of Aortic Coarctation.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate postoperative vascular changes of patients with coarctation of the aorta (CoA).

METHODS

Literature review of updated articles was performed in June 2023 through the following databases: PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, Crohrane Library, CNKI and Wanfang database. All the case-control studies regarding the postoperative changes of vascular structure and function in patients with CoA were analyzed.

RESULTS

A total of 596 articles from the above databases were initially identified, with 10 articles being selected for meta-analysis. The analysis showed that weighted mean difference (WMD) of carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) was 0.07 (95% CI = 0.01~0.13, p < 0.01) and WMD of flow mediated dilation (FMD) was -4.36 (95% CI = -7.49~-1.24, p < 0.01), respectively. The postoperative cIMT of CoA patients was higher than that of the control group, but the postoperative FMD was lower than that of the control group.

CONCLUSIONS

The operation on CoA patients ameliorates anatomical deformity in the vascular structures. However, intima-media thickening and endothelial malfunction remain as the key postoperative issues.