Methods
- MEDLINE and EMBASE were searched through September 2013.
- Eligible studies were observational studies of BITA versus SITA grafting and reporting adjusted HRs for long-term (≥4-year) mortality as an outcome.
- Meta-regression analyses were performed to determine whether the effects of BITA grafting were modulated by the pre-specified factors.
Results
- Twenty observational studies enrolling 70,897 patients were identified and included.
- A pooled analysis suggested a significant reduction in long-term mortality with BITA relative to SITA grafting (HR, 0.80; 95% confidence interval, 0.77 to 0.84).
- When data from 6 pedicled and 6 skeletonized ITA studies were separately pooled, BITA grafting was associates with a statistically significant 26% and 16% reduction in mortality relative to SITA grafting, respectively (P for subgroup differences = .04).
- A meta-regression coefficient was significantly negative for proportion of men (–0.00960; -0.01806 to -0.00114).