• Subhasis Chatterjee, Ann Shi, Luke Yoon, Susan Y Green, Qianzi Zhang, Hiruni S Amarasekara, Vicente Orozco-Sevilla, Ourania Preventza, Scott A LeMaire, and Joseph S Coselli.
• Division of General Surgery, Department of Surgery, Baylor College Medicine, Houston, Tex; Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Baylor College Medicine, Houston, Tex; CHI St Luke's Health-Baylor St Luke's Medical Center, Houston, Tex; Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Texas Heart Institute, Houston, Tex. Electronic address: Subhasis.Chatterjee@bcm.edu.
• J. Thorac. Cardiovasc. Surg. 2023 Jun 1; 165 (6): 19851996.e31985-1996.e3.

ObjectiveSarcopenia (core muscle loss) has been used as a surrogate marker of frailty. We investigated whether sarcopenia would adversely affect survival after thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm repair.MethodsWe retrospectively reviewed prospectively collected data from patients aged 60 years or older who underwent thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm repairs from 2006 to 2016. Imaging was reviewed by 2 radiologists blinded to clinical outcomes. The total psoas index was derived from total psoas muscle cross-sectional area (cm2) at the mid-L4 level, normalized for height (m2). Patients were divided by sex-specific total psoas index values into sarcopenia (lower third) and nonsarcopenia (upper two-thirds) groups. Multivariable modeling identified operative mortality and spinal cord injury predictors. Unadjusted and adjusted survival curves were analyzed.ResultsOf 392 patients identified, those with sarcopenia (n = 131) were older than nonsarcopenic patients (n = 261) (70.0 years vs 68.0 years; P = .02) and more frequently presented with aortic rupture or required urgent/emergency operations. Operative mortality was comparable (sarcopenia 13.7% vs nonsarcopenia 10.0%; P = .3); sarcopenia was not associated with operative mortality in the multivariable model (odds ratio, 1.40; 95% confidence interval, 0.73-2.77; P = .3). Sarcopenic patients experienced more frequent delayed (13.0% vs 4.6%; P = .005) and persistent (10.7% vs 3.4%; P = .008) paraplegia. Sarcopenia independently predicted delayed paraplegia (odds ratio, 3.17; 95% confidence interval, 1.42-7.08; P = .005) and persistent paraplegia (odds ratio, 3.29; 95% confidence interval, 1.33-8.13; P = .01) in the multivariable model. Adjusted for preoperative/operative covariates, midterm survival was similar for sarcopenic and nonsarcopenic patients (P = .3).ConclusionsSarcopenia did not influence early mortality or midterm survival after thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm repair but was associated with greater risk for delayed and persistent paraplegia.Copyright © 2021 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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