Introduction. Despite advantages in interventional cardiology during last decade, chronic total occlusions (CTO) still remains one of the biggest problem in percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) (10,14). CTO prevalence is high, but only less than 10% of percutaneous revascularizations are CTO interventions (17). There are no prospective randomized trials, properly powered for hard clinical endpoints, comparing modern optimal medical therapy with contemporary state of the art CTO recanalization (6).
Aim of the study. The aim of our study was to compare CTO PCI procedural parameters and treatment results using anterograde and/or retrograde approach.
Materials and methods. The study included all patients undergoing PCI for CTO at single tertiary PCI center between January 2007 and December 2012. 5568 PCI procedures were done in this period in our institution. 486 (8,64%) of them were CTO PCI. Retrograde approach was used in 138 (28,7% of all CTO PCI) cases. Patients were grouped according PCI year performing, approach (anterograde or retrograde) and PCI results (successful or unsuccessful). Demographic and procedural data were collected at the time of intervention.
Results. A total of 405 patients undergoing CTO PCI were included. The median age was 64yrs(38-88) and 79,2% was male. Retrograde approach (RA) was used in 138(28,7%) cases. RA usage has increase from 15.9% in 2007 till 46,8% of cases in 2012(p=0,0000218). The overall patient and procedure success rates were 77,8% (315/90) and 69,9%(340/146) respectively. Overall success rate has increase from 61,4% in 2007 till 87,1% in 2012 (p<0,001). Overall survival was found better in patients group after successful procedure (Long-rank test p=0,019).
Conclusions. Retrograde approach usage significantly increase CTO PCI success rate, but doesn’t increase risk of complications. Long-term outcome and survival after CTO PCI is not depending on approach (anterograde or retrograde), but on procedural success.
