Background: Low operator and institutional volume is associated with poorer procedural and long-term clinical outcomes in patients treated with percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI). This study was aimed at evaluating the relationship between operator volume and procedural outcomes of patients treated with PCI for chronic total occlusion (CTO).
Methods: Data were obtained from the national registry of percutaneous coronary interventions (ORPKI) collected from January 2014 to December 2020. The primary endpoint was a procedural success, defined as restoration of thrombolysis in myocardial infarction (TIMI) II/III flow without in-hospital cardiac death and myocardial infarction, whereas secondary endpoints included periprocedural complications.
Results: Data of 14,899 CTO-PCIs were analyzed. The global procedural success was 66.1%. There was a direct relationship between the annual volume of CTO-PCIs per operator and the procedural success (OR: 1.006 [95% CI: 1.003-1.009]; P<0.001). The nonlinear relationships of annualized CTO-PCI volume per operator and adjusted outcome rates revealed that operators performing 40 CTO cases per year had the best procedural outcomes in terms of technical success (TIMI flow II/III after PCI), coronary artery perforation rate and any periprocedural complications rate (P<0.0001). Among the other factors associated with procedural success, the following can be noted: multi-vessel, left main coronary artery disease (as compared to single-vessel disease), the usage of rotablation as well as PCI within bifurcation.
Conclusions: High-volume CTO operators achieve greater procedural success with a lower frequency of periprocedural complications. Higher annual caseload might increase the overall quality of CTO-PCI.