Evaluation of mortality after drug-coated balloon angioplasty of femoropopliteal lesions

Overall, 7,357 patients with femoropopliteal lesions were treated within the study period receiving either DCB angioplasty or POBA. Of those, 1,579 fulfilled the study criteria. A total of 514 patients were treated with POBA without crossover to a paclitaxel-coated device during follow-up and 1,065 patients were treated with DCB angioplasty. Mortality incidence at mean follow-up of 52.0 20.5 months (median 51 months) was 27.8% after POBA and 16.9% after DCB angioplasty (p < 0.001). Equally, for a cohort excluding patients over 80 years of age, the mortality rate after POBA treatment was significantly higher (23.6% vs. 12.3%; p < 0.001). For the entire cohort, independent predictors for mortality were age (p < 0.001), type of treatment (p ¼ 0.009), hyperlipidemia (p ¼ 0.010), diabetes mellitus (p ¼ 0.010), renal insufficiency (p ¼ 0.007), stroke (p ¼ 0.017), and Rutherford-Becker class 4 (p < 0.001). DCB length was not correlated to mortality rate. After propensity score matching, independent mortality predictors were POBA treatment (p ¼ 0.035), age (p < 0.001), stroke (p ¼ 0.025), and renal insufficiency (p ¼ 0.007).