HCP’s Bruce E. Landon, MD, MBA, MSc, and James O’Malley, PhD, participated in a major study comparing perioperative mortality and morbidity, long-term survival, and reinterventions in Medicare beneficiaries from two different types of procedures to repair abdominal aortic aneurysms: endovascular (through a large blood vessel) and open (surgical) repair. The study was published in a recent issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

For each procedure, the researchers studied data from nearly 23,000 patients. The results showed that the endovascular procedure resulted in lower short-term mortality and morbidity than the surgical repair, with the mortality benefit more pronounced in older patients, and that each procedure could result in its own set of complications.

Harvard Medical School issued a press release on this study, which was also covered in such diverse media outlets as the Wall Street Journal, American College of Physicians InternistWeekly, CNN radio, Yahoo news, newswise.com, and ideasforsurgery.com.