Recanalization of Chronic Total Occlusions Using Modern Endovascular Techniques

Purpose: to assess results of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with contemporary endovascular techniques of recanalization of chronic total coronary artery occlusions (CTO) in patients with ischemic heart disease (IHD). Occlusion (CTO) he procedural and in-hospital outcomes of consecutive patients undergoing chronic total occlusion percutaneous coronary intervention.
Materials and methods. We retrospectively analyzed data from 456 consecutive patients (mean age 59.9±7.1 years, 18.2 % women) who underwent CTO PCI procedures (n=477) during 2014–2016 in the E. N. Meshalkin National Medical Research Center. CTO was localized in the right (61.2 %), left anterior descending (23.2 %) and left circumflex (15.3 %) coronary arteries. In one patient CTO was located in the left main coronary artery. According to the J-CTO score, 30 % of lesions were classified as easy, 36.4 % intermediate, 23.7 % difficult, and 18.9 % very difficult.
Results. Technical and procedural successes were achieved in 374 (78.4 %) and 366 patients (76.7 %), respectively. Antegrade approach was used in 378 (79.2 %), retrograde approach – in 99 (20.7 %) cases. Retrograde approach as primary strategy was used in 27 cases (5.7 %). Most frequent access for CTO PCI was radial artery, contralateral injection was used in 151 cases (31.6 %). Total number of stents per lesion was 1.6±0.98. The mean fluoroscopy time was 36.2±31 min.
Conclusions. The rate of procedural adverse events in our study was low and similar to the non-CTO PCI series. However, despite the large number of CTO PCIs, the procedural success rate was still lower than in centers with dedicated programs for the management of such patients. Thus, further work is required to overcome this difference. Possible solution of this problem might be development and introduction in clinical practice of an algorithm for CTO recanalization.

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