Temporal trends in baseline characteristics and peri-procedural complications of percutaneous drug-eluting stent implantation for unprotected left main disease: A single high-volume center experience

Aim. Percutaneous drug-eluting stent (DES) implantation is commonly used in patients with unprotected left main (ULM) disease. As this procedure has been performed routinely in Turin Center since 2002, this article aimed to summarize a five year-experience in DES implantation in the ULM. Methods. Baseline, procedural and in-hospital outcome data of all patients with ULM undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with DES between July 2002 and October 2006 at Turin Center have been collected. Patients were randomized into four groups: A (patients treated between July 2002 and December 2003), B (treated in 2004), C (treated in 2005) and D (treated in 2006). The baseline surgical risk features was to be compared with the European System for Cardiac Operative Risk Evaluation, disease location in the ULM, and in-hospital major adverse cerebro-cardiovascular events (MACCE), defined as death, myocardial infarction, repeat percutaneous revascularization, coronary artery bypass grafting, stroke, or stent thrombosis. Results. Out of a total of 4 432 coronary interventional procedures 198 patients treated with DES in the ULM were identified. There was a significant increase in the number of patients treated (P=0.00095), but no difference in EuroSCORE across groups (P=0.14). Conversely, there was a significant temporal trend in the incidence of bifurcational ULM being treated with DES (P=0.03). Intriguingly, despite this increase in adverse lesion characteristics, no significant increase was found in the rate of in-hospital MACCE (P=0.93). Conclusion. In this single-center study, the number of patients being treated with DES for ULM disease has risen across the years, although keeping a similar surgical risk profile. Distal ULM involvement is no longer considered an absolute contraindication to PCI, as testified by the increasing frequency of such lesion among patients undergoing DES implantation at this Institution, with remarkably low rates of adverse events.