Endovascular Treatment of Tracheoinnominate Artery Fistula: Case Report and Literature Review With Pooled Cohort Analysis

To pool data from published cases of tracheoinnominate artery fistula (TIF) treated with surgical or endovascular techniques along with reporting a case of similar presentation. A total of 261 cases in 137 published case reports and case series were identified through a comprehensive systematic literature review. Data regarding patient characteristics, treatment, and follow-up were extracted. A local case of a 14-year-old boy with TIF due to longstanding tracheostomy treated with stent-graft placement was added to the data. Comparison of the complication rates between surgical vs endovascular interventions was done with the chi-square test. Factors associated with longer survival were assessed by the Cox regression analysis. Thirty-three (12.6%) of the reported cases were treated endovascularly, 137 (52.3%) were treated surgically, and 92 (35.1%) were reported with no definitive treatment. Mean age was 34 ± 22 years, and 61% were males. The mean time interval between tracheotomy placement and bleeding was 1 ± 2.5 years. A lower procedure-related complication (30% vs 50%, P = 0.045) and 30-day mortality (9% vs 23%, P = 0.008) rates had been reported with percutaneous approaches compared to surgery. No percutaneous procedure was reported prior to year 2000. In multivariate analysis stratified by publication year, a shorter tracheostomy-to-bleeding time (year) was significantly associated with higher hazards of death (hazard ratio: 1.22, P = 0.017). Type of intervention (percutaneous vs surgery) was not associated with postintervention survival (adjusted hazard ratio: 0.78, P = 0.558). Endovascular stent grafting can have a comparable postprocedural survival and lower complication rates vs open surgical repair in treatment of TIF.