Elective Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair: Relationship of Hospital Teaching Status to Repair Type, Resource Use, and Outcomes

BACKGROUND: There has been a dramatic increase in the use of endovascular technology for treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA), but practice patterns have not been well-evaluated. Hospital resource use and outcomes after elective endovascular abdominal aortic repair (EVAR) and open surgical repair were assessed by hospital type, ie, major teaching (MT), teaching affiliate, and nonteaching (NT). STUDY DESIGN: Elective, nonruptured AAA repairs were identified in the State Inpatient Databases for New Jersey (2001 to 2006). Descriptive statistics, univariate, multivariable, trend, and case-mix-adjustment analyses were employed. RESULTS: A total of 6,227 subjects were identified; 4,698 patients (mean age 73.0 +/- 8.01 years; 79.2% men) underwent elective repair of AAA. EVAR was performed 2.6 times more often in MT compared with NT (p < 0.0001) institutions. Univariate evaluation demonstrated that women had a predominance of EVAR performed (p < 0 .0002) in MT hospitals and that minorities in NT hospitals were more likely to be treated with open operations (p = 0.0148). Case-mix-adjusted mortality rates for EVAR were higher at NT (1.95%; 95% CI, 1.81 to 2.09) compared with MT (0.73%; 95% CI, 0.69 to 0.77) hospitals. After adjustment, MT hospitals were more likely to use EVAR (odds ratio = 2.4; 95% CI, 2.11 to 2.83) and less likely to have increased length of stay (odds ratio = 0.38; 95% CI, 0.32 to 0.44) compared with NT. CONCLUSIONS: Hospital teaching status was significantly associated with repair type, overall mortality, and hospital resource use. MT hospitals were considerably more likely to use EVAR for elective AAA repair, offered an improvement in survival, were more likely to treat women and minorities with EVAR, and demonstrated decreased length of stay and cost.