Objective: To evaluate results, complications and mortality following percutaneous transluminal renal angioplasty (PTRA) and open surgical revascularisation for renovascular disease.
Methods: A retrospective evaluation of 381 renovascular patients (median age 64, range 9-99 years, 152 women) treated at Malmö University Hospital during 1987-1996. Two hundred and sixty-two (69%) of the patients were treated with PTRA, 106 (28%) with open revascularisation.
Results: Thirty-day mortality was 2% in the PTRA group and 9% after open surgery (p<0.001). There were no differences between groups concerning the number of re-do procedures, but first re-do was performed after seven (IQR 3-14) months in the PTRA group, and after 15 (IQR 10-44) months after open revascularisation (p<0.0001). After a median follow-up of 4 months (IQR 0-13) systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP) had decreased (p<0.0001) in both groups. The number of antihypertensive drugs was reduced (p<0.0001) and S-creatinine levels were unchanged in both groups. Long-time survival assessed with log-rank analysis was better (p<0.01) in the PTRA group. The risk ratio for death with open revascularisation was 1.69 (p<0.01).
Conclusions: In this retrospective comparison, PTRA was as effective as open revascularisation, with lower complication rate and lower early and long-time mortality, but with shorter time to first re-do.