Survival up with successful PCI to a chronic total occlusion

(HealthDay)—For patients with chronic total occlusion, successful percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is associated with improved long-term survival, according to a study published in the July 22 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Sudhakar George, M.D., from the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals in the United Kingdom, and colleagues compared outcomes for patients with a successful versus unsuccessful PCI to a chronic total occlusion. Data were collected from the U.K. Central Cardiac Audit Database for all chronic total occlusion PCI cases carried out in England and Wales from 2005 through 2009. The cohort included 13,443 patients (78.8 percent male; mean age, 63.5 years) who underwent 14,439 chronic total occlusion procedures.

The researchers found that PCI was successful in 70.6 percent of the cases. Successful PCI of at least one chronic total occlusion correlated with improved survival during 2.65 years of follow-up (hazard ratio, 0.72; P < 0.001). Compared with partial revascularization or failed revascularization, complete revascularization correlated with improved survival (hazard ratios, 0.70 [P = 0.002] and 0.61 [P < 0.001], respectively).

"Successful chronic total occlusion PCI was associated with improved long-term survival," the authors write. "The improvement was greatest in patients when complete revascularization was achieved."

Several authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical and medical device industries.

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