I read the study by Hegeman et al. [1] on transcatheter closure of postsurgical aortic pseudoaneurysms (PTAPs) with great interest but found two significant oversights in their work. Firstly, Matsuzawa et al. [2] did not report a 61% mortality rate in untreated PTAPs. In the same issue of the Netherlands Heart Journal, de Winter et al. [3] correctly identified Mulder et al. [4] as the source. However, Mulder’s study focuses on false aneurysms in the aortoiliac or aortofemoral region, not the ascending aorta, where the PTAPs of Hegeman et al. are located. Furthermore, Mulder’s reported 61% mortality rate from ruptures is actually only 44% (8 of 18 patients), a significant discrepancy.
Secondly, Hegeman et al. overlooked two vital treatment options: percutaneous transthoracic treatment [5] and a conservative approach for asymptomatic patients [6]. This omission is crucial, as 2 of 11 patients in their study died post-treatment. Incorporating these methods could potentially offer safer alternatives and improve patient outcomes.
Conflict of interest
B. Bervoets declares that he has no competing interests.
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
