Invasive and conservative management of elderly patients presenting with acute coronary syndrome: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials and adjusted observational studies

Background: Elderly patients are often under-represented in studies about coronary revascularization in acute coronary syndromes (ACS) and undertreated in clinical practice. We sought to evaluate differences in outcomes between an initial invasive or conservative strategy in this subset of patients, METHODS: The analysis was performed following PRISMA guidelines. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and adjusted observational studies comparing an invasive and conservative strategy in old patients with ACS were systematically identified. Random or fixed effect model was used accordingly to heterogeneity testing results. Short-term mortality was the primary outcome. 30-day and longer-term re-infarction, MACE and all-cause mortality were secondary endpoints. Sensitivity analysis including RCTs only were performed for the primary endpoint and 1 year mortality and another analysis, stratifying NSTEMI and STEMI studies, was performed for short-term mortality.

Results: Invasive management was associated with lower short and long-term mortality (30 days OR 0.64, 95 % CI 0.54-0.76, p < 0.001; 1 year HR 0.60, 95 % CI 0.52-0.78, p < 0.001; Long-term HR 0.62, 95 % CI 0.55-0.71, p < 0.001) compared to a conservative strategy. In the short-term follow-up, the benefit was preserved when differentiating for NSTEMI or STEMI studies but not when considering only RCTs. Major bleedings were more frequent in the invasive group (30 days OR 1.61, 95 % CI 1.39-1.87, p < 0.001). The mean difference in length of stay was not significantly different between the two strategies (mean difference in days 0.14, 95 % CI -0.79 to 1.06, p = 0.77).

Conclusion: An initial invasive strategy might lead to reduced short and long-term mortality in elderly patients presenting with acute coronary syndrome but it is associated with increased bleeding events rate. No difference in hospital stay length was observed. Results were mainly driven by non-randomized studies.