To Örebro University

BACKGROUND: Serious complications related to groin access have been reported with the use of resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta (REBOA). We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to estimate the incidence of complications related to groin access from the use of REBOA in adult trauma patients.

METHODS: We identified articles in MEDLINE and EMBASE. We reviewed all studies that involved adult trauma patients that underwent the placement of a REBOA and included only those that reported the incidence of complications related to groin access. A meta-analysis of proportions was performed RESULTS: We 13 studies with a total of 424 patients. REBOA was inserted most commonly by trauma surgeons or emergency room physicians. Information regarding puncture technique was reported in 12 studies and was available for a total of 414 patients. Percutaneous access and surgical cutdown were performed in 304 (73.4%) and 110 (26.5%) patients respectively. Overall, complications related to groin access occurred in 5.6% of patients (n=24/424). Lower limb amputation was required in 2.1% of patients (9/424), of which three cases (3/424 [0.7%]) were directly related to the vascular puncture from the REBOA insertion. A meta-analysis which used the logit transformation showed a 5% (95% CI 3%-9%) incidence of complications without significant heterogeneity (LR test: χ2 = 0.73, p=0.2, Tau-square=0.2). In a second meta-analysis, we used the Freeman-Turkey double arcsine transformation and found an incidence of complications of 4% (95% CI 2%-7%) with low heterogeneity (I2 = 16.3%).

CONCLUSION: We found that the incidence of complications related to groin access was of four to five percent based on a meta-analysis of 13 studies published worldwide. Currently, there are no benchmarks or quality measures as a reference to compare, and thus, further work is required to identify these benchmarks and improve the practice of REBOA in trauma surgery.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis, Level III.