ObjectiveDespite the rapid development of thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR), it is still a challenge to maintain the blood flow of the branch arteries above the aortic arch in Stanford type B aortic dissection involving the left subclavian artery (LSA). The Castor stent graft is an integrated, customized, single-branch stent that enables reconstruction of the LSA. The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to assess the efficacy of the Castor stent graft for type B aortic dissection.Materials and methodsAn extensive electronic literature search (PROSPERO registration number: CRD42022322146) was undertaken to identify all articles published up to August 2022 that described thoracic aortic repair with branch stents in the treatment of type B aortic dissection involving the LSA. The quality of the included studies was analyzed using the MINORS criteria. The primary outcome measures were the technical success rate, early mortality rate, endoleak rate, and 1-year survival rate. The secondary outcome measures were the stroke rate, left upper extremity ischemia rate, and target vessel patency rate.ResultsEleven studies involving 415 patients were eligible for this meta-analysis. The LSA was successfully preserved in all procedures. The technical success rate was 97.5% (95% CI: 0.953–0.991); the intraoperative endoleak rate was 0.1% (95% CI: 0.000–0.012); the intraoperative LSA patency rate was 99.52%; the intraoperative LSA stent deformation and stenosis rate was 0.15% (95% CI: 0.000–0.051); the early type I endoleak rate was 1.6% (95% CI: 0.003–0.035); the 30-day mortality rate was 0.96%; the early reintervention rate was 0.9% (95% CI: 0.000–0.040); and the perioperative stroke rate was 0% (95% CI: 0.000–0.005). The 1-year survival rate was 99.7% (95% CI: 0.976–1.000). The half-year LSA patency rate was 99.3%, the 1-year LSA patency rate was 97.58%, and the 2-year LSA patency rate was 95.23%. During the follow-up period, the leakage rate was 0.3% (95% CI: 0.000–0.017), the incidence of left upper extremity ischemia rate was 0.5% (95% CI: 0.000–0.035), and the deformation and stenosis rate of the LSA stent was 2.2% (95% CI: 0.06–0.046).ConclusionThis meta-analysis shows that endovascular repair of type B aortic dissection using the Castor stent-graft may be technically feasible and effective. However, this conclusion needs to be interpreted with caution, as the quality of evidence for all outcomes is between low and very low.Systematic review registration[https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/], identifier [CRD42022322146].

Summary The goal of this network meta-analysis was to compare the early mortality rate of patients who underwent coronary endarterectomy (CE) combined with coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) with different techniques and with isolated CABG. This analysis also evaluated potential risk factors in patients who undergo CE. Eighteen studies were included, covering 21 752 different patients, among whom 3352 underwent CE + CABG with either open or closed techniques and 18 400 underwent isolated CABG. Patients who had CE + CABG had a statistically significant higher mortality rate [odds ratio (OR) 1.76; P < 0.001]. Subgroup analyses showed that, with closed CE, mortality was 52% (OR 1.52, P = 0.001) more likely to occur, whereas with open CE, mortality was 279% (OR 3.79, P < 0.001) more likely to occur, when both were compared with isolated CABG. A network meta-analysis indicated that both the open and closed methods had poorer results than CABG alone and that the open method had a higher risk of mortality than the closed one. For risk factors, diabetes mellitus (DM), hypertension, prior myocardial infarction, peripheral vascular disease and renal failure were significant contributors to inclusion in the CE group, whereas other risk factors showed no significant difference. However, none of these factors indicated significant correlations with the incidence of mortality between the groups. CE + CABG has a significantly higher risk of death than isolated CABG, and open CE is more risky than closed CE, even though most of the individual studies did not show that CE had a higher risk of mortality. Moreover, DM, hypertension, prior myocardial infarction, peripheral vascular disease and renal failure were more common in the patients who had CE + CABG, but these factors may not necessarily increase the mortality risk of patients who have CE.