Coronary chronic total occlusions (CTOs) represent a frequent lesions' subset observed in everyday catheterization laboratory practice. Previously considered to be an indication for surgical myocardial revascularization, the interest of interventional community in CTOs has exponentially grown during the last decade, particularly thanks to an important development in dedicated equipment and techniques, and has led to the achievement of high rates of success and low rates of complications by expert operators. In absence of available data from randomized trials, several observational studies have shown the benefits of CTO percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in insuring better cardiovascular outcome, particularly by improving ventricular function and reducing cardiac mortality.
Keywords: Chronic total occlusion (CTO); clinical outcome; left ventricular function; percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).