Long-Term Mortality of Matched Patients with Intermittent Claudication Treated by High-Dose Paclitaxel-Coated Balloon Versus Plain Balloon Angioplasty: A Real-World Study

Purpose The aim of this study was to assess the long-term mortality of patients treated by the IN.PACT Admiral (Medtronic, Dublin, Ireland) paclitaxel-coated balloon angioplasty (PCBA) compared with standard plain balloon angioplasty (POBA). Materials and Methods Between January 2013 and January 2014, 238 patients met the inclusion criteria. A two-step analysis was performed. In step 1, the 5-year mortality of the whole patient population was evaluated regardless of possible differences in the patient demographics. In step 2, a matched paired analysis was performed using propensity scores. In addition, for those patients who were treated with PCBA, a possible correlation between dose of paclitaxel and mortality was evaluated. Results Univariate analysis for the whole group of patients (POBA group A, n = 84 and PCBA group B, n = 121) showed a 5-year mortality rate of 26.2% versus 14.0%, p = 0.02, respectively. Univariate analysis of 77 pairs of propensity score-matched patients resulted in mortality of 26.0% versus 20.8%, p = 0.4, of group A and B, respectively (median follow-up of 61.7 and 61.8 months, p = 0.8, respectively). Comparison of the patients of group B who died versus those who survived showed no correlation between the dose of paclitaxel with increased mortality ( p = 0.4). Conclusion The 5-year findings of the present real-world study showed no increased mortality for the matched patients who underwent PCBA versus POBA. In addition, there was no correlation between mortality and the dose of paclitaxel used.