3.1. Baseline characteristics
A total of 79 931 records were collected via online database review, out of which 7345 studies were eligible for abstract screening. After applying the exclusion criteria, 109 records were adopted for full-text screening, and eventually, reported data of 43 studies including 5068 patients who underwent TAR with FET were reviewed [4, 15-56] (Figure 1 ).
Overall, the mean proportion of males out of the patient population included in this meta-analysis was 72.2% (95% CI 70.8-73.6). The most frequently reported risk factor was hypertension (67.6% [95% CI 65.9-69.3]), followed by smoking (19.2% [95% CI 15.6-23.2]). In addition, emergent surgeries accounted for 81.2% (95% CI 78.8-83.5) of individuals (studies in which the urgency of procedures was reported). The pooled means for cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) time and the aortic cross-clamp time were 220 minutes (95% CI 202.8-237.3) and 136.6 minutes (95% CI 122.8-150.5), respectively. All extracted baseline characteristics and procedural features are summarized in Table 1 .