Key result
Physician-modified endografts achieve ~98% technical success for complex abdominal aortic aneurysms.
Why the study?
Perioperative and follow-up outcomes of physician-modified endograft (PMEG) repair for juxtarenal and pararenal abdominal aortic aneurysms needed to be evaluated.
Does physician-modified endograft repair improve outcomes in patients with juxtarenal and pararenal abdominal aortic aneurysms?
Meta-Analysis (n=981)
Yes
Does physician-modified endograft repair improve outcomes in patients with juxtarenal and pararenal abdominal aortic aneurysms?
PMEG repair shows high technical feasibility and low early event rates in experienced centers, but clinical effectiveness and durability remain uncertain.
Background: To present perioperative and follow-up outcomes of physician-modified endograft (PMEG) repair for juxtarenal and pararenal abdominal aortic aneurysms. Methods: This PRISMA 2020 systematic review and single-arm meta-analysis was registered with PROSPERO (CRD420261340339). PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, and ClinicalTrials.gov were searched until December 2025. Eligible reports described full-text-confirmed cohorts of at least five patients treated with PMEG. The strict primary analysis required endpoint-separable juxtarenal or pararenal populations and used random-effects generalized linear mixed models for pooled proportions. Methodological quality and evidence certainty were assessed using the Joanna Briggs Institute checklist and GRADE framework. Results: Fifteen eligible reports described 981 patients before overlap adjudication; 10 reports originated from one institution and contained overlapping populations. After pathology and endpoint-level overlap adjudication, one to four independent populations informed each endpoint estimate, and single-source outcomes were not pooled. Technical success was 97.8% (95% CI, 94.8–99.1%; three populations, 228 patients), and 30-day mortality was 2.3% (95% CI, 1.1–4.8%; four populations, 299 patients). Acute kidney injury, stroke, and spinal cord ischemia occurred in 4.5%, 1.6%, and 1.7% of patients, respectively. During available follow-up, the single-source Type III endoleak estimate was 3.4% (7/203), any reintervention was 13.2% (95% CI, 2.9–43.7%; two populations, 217 patients; I2 = 89.0%), and patient-level target-vessel occlusion was 2.4% (95% CI, 0.6–9.1%; 2 populations, 83 patients). Follow-up estimates were exploratory report-period proportions. GRADE certainty was very low for all key outcomes. Conclusions: PMEG repair demonstrated a high technical-feasibility signal and low observed early event rates in experienced centers, but clinical effectiveness and durability remain uncertain. The evidence base is dominated by overlapping expert-center reports and should not be interpreted as establishing equivalence or superiority to custom-manufactured FEVAR.
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Wang et al. (2026) conducted a meta-analysis in Juxtarenal and pararenal abdominal aortic aneurysms (n=981). Physician-modified endograft (PMEG) was evaluated on Technical success (95% CI 94.8-99.1). Physician-modified endograft repair for juxtarenal and pararenal abdominal aortic aneurysms demonstrated a technical success rate of 97.8% and 30-day mortality of 2.3%.
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