CHICAGO, Ill. (March 31, 2008) Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) may be a reasonable alternative to bypass surgery in patients with blockages in the left main coronary artery, according to a study that found no significant difference in rates of survival when stents and bypass surgery were used to restore blood flow through this critically important artery. Patients who were treated with stenting were more likely to need a repeat procedure to keep the artery open, however.
The findings come from the Revascularization for Unprotected Left MAIN Coronary Artery Stenosis: COMparison of Percutaneous Coronary Angioplasty Versus Surgical REvascularization (MAIN-COMPARE) study, which drew its data from a large multicenter data registry in Korea, where left-main stenting is far more common than in the U.S.
The study is being reported today in a Late-Breaking Clinical Trials session at the SCAI Annual Scientific Sessions in Partnership with ACC i2 Summit (SCAI-ACCi2) in Chicago. SCAI-ACCi2 is a scientific meeting for practicing cardiovascular interventionalists sponsored by the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) in partnership with the American College of Cardiology (ACC). This study will simultaneously publish in The New England Journal of Medicine.
The left-main coronary artery supplies blood to approximately 75 percent of the left ventricle. When a blockage is located in the left main coronary artery, coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG) is usually considered the safest procedure, unless the patient is protected by an existing bypass graft that routes blood to another major coronary artery supplying the left side of the heart.
The new study suggests it is worth considering stent implantation even if the left main coronary artery is unprotected by a prior bypass graft. Because the recommendation for surgery for left main disease is based mostly on survival benefit, the lack of a statistically
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| Contact: Kathy Boyd David pr@scai.org 717-422-1181 Weber Shandwick Worldwide Source:Eurekalert |