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Received Feb 19, 2017; Revised Aug 21, 2017; Accepted Sep 17, 2017
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
1. Introduction
Acute thromboembolic occlusion of the superior mesenteric artery (ATOS) is a life-threatening disease characterized by strangulated obstruction and a final physiopathology of bowel necrosis and poor patient prognosis. Despite improvement in living standards, the incidence of ATOS has gradually risen in recent years. The mortality rate of ATOS has remained fairly high (ranging from 60% to 90%) over the past decades [1–5], which is at least partly attributable to its unspecific symptoms and lack of reliable examinations. Surgery for ATOS is associated with a high rate of morbidity and mortality [6, 7]. Over the last years, a few studies reported the employment of endovascular revascularization in the treatment of ATOS [8–12], with rapid blood supply reestablished and relatively small resultant trauma. It was shown by very few studies that endovascular treatment resulted in significantly less bowel resection and shorter bowel syndrome and mortality than open surgery [13]; however, whether or not endovascular interventional therapy should be the primary treatment for ATOS is still controversial [14, 15].
In the present study, we retrospectively analyzed the clinical data from cases of 30 patients with ATOS admitted to the Tianjin Union Medical Center (Tianjin, China) in an effort to assess the efficacy of endovascular therapy for ATOS as well as to compare the outcomes between endovascular and open surgical treatments.
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Patients
This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Tianjin Union Medical Center (Tianjin, China). Cases of arterial thrombosis admitted to the Tianjin Union Medical Center from...