Table 1 Summary of observed short and long-term complications

Endovascular

Angiletta [12]

-

Alive and developed an aneurysm of the right carotid artery bifurcation at 96 months

Taha [15]

-

-

Puech-Leao [16]

-

Alive and symptom free at 24 months

Park [17]

-

-

Hybrid endovascular and sternotomy

Mellisano [13]

Atrial fibrillation, cardiac arrest, pulmonary effusion

Alive and symptom free at 3 months

Cervical approach

Takach [18]

-

-

Partial median sternotomy

MacLean [19]

-

-

Mori [20]

-

-

Lane [21]

Phrenic nerve damage, fever

-

Full median sternotomy

Constenla [11]

Respiratory failure, pneumonia

Alive and symptom free at 12 months

Oswal [22]

-

Alive and symptom free at 12 months

Lu [14]

-

Alive at 20 months

Yuan [23]

Stroke

-

Da Col [24]

-

-

Oruganti [25]

-

-

Saito [26]

-

-

Kieffer [5]

Neurological deficits (2), dysphonia (3), haemorrhage (1), artficial ventilation (5), multiple organ failure (2)

7 deaths (cancer=3, cardiac=2, accident =1, unknown=1) during 85 months (3–194)

Chiappini [27]

-

Alive at 6 months

Guibaud [28]

-

-

Najafi [29]

-

-

Villegas-Cabello [30]

-

-

Adkins [31]

-

-

Bower [3]

Atelectasis (1), pneumonitis (1), brain stem infarct (1)

3 late deaths (cancer=1, stroke=1, vasculitis and heart disease=1), lost to fallow up (1), unkown (1). 5 year survival=62.5%

Thomas [32]

Thromboembolism

-

Combined full median sternotomy and cervical approach

Ketonen [33]

Wound haematoma of femoral incision

Alive and symptom free at 108 months

-

Died due to the laryneal cancer at 2 months

Murray [34]

-

Alive and symptom free at 10 months

Zintel [35]

Right arm ischaemia, wound infection

Alive and no change in pre-operative neurological deficit at 36 months

Full median sternotomy with anterior neck dissection

Ikonomidis [36]

Persistent arm swelling

Alive and symptom free at 12 months

Takaba [37]

-

-

Kasashima [38]

Right hemianopia

Alive, right upper quadrantic hemianopia and right facial anhidrosis on day 34

Tominage [7]

-

-

Schumacher [39]

Respiratory dysfunction

Alive, right vocal paralysis and hoarseness persisted, dysphagia relieved at 9 months

Cook [40]

-

-

Infection

-

Kirby [8]

Paralysis of left arm

-

Thoracotomy

Cook [40]

-

Alive and symptom free at 55 months. Imrovement of aneurysm

Conservative

Yang [41]

-

-

Butman [42]

Brain stem/cerebellar infarct

-

Unspecified

Gordon-Taylor [43]

Hemiplegia (2), cerebral symptoms (2), haemorrhage (4), uraemia (1), Respiratory dysfunction/failure (2), pneumonia (1), mediastinitis (1), infection (2), reintervention (1)

10 deaths