Introduction: Complete revascularization (CR) in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and multivessel disease (MVD), is associated with a reduction in major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE). However, there is uncertainty about whether nonculprit-lesion revascularization should be performed, during index hospitalization or delayed, especially regarding health care resources utilization. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the impact of in-hospital nonculprit-lesion revascularization vs. delayed (after discharge) revascularization on the length of index hospitalization.
Methods: In this single-center study, we randomly assigned patients with STEMI and MVD who underwent successful culprit-lesion PCI to a strategy of either CR during in-hospital admission or a delayed CR after discharge. The first primary endpoint was the length of hospital stay. The second endpoint was the composite of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction or ischemia-driven revascularization at 12 months (MACE).
Results: From January 2018 to December 2022, we enrolled 258 patients (131 allocated to CR during in-hospital admission and 127 to an after-discharge CR). We found a significant reduction in the length of hospital stay in those assigned to after-discharge CR strategy [4 days (3-5) versus 7 days (5-9); p = 0.001]. At 12-month of follow-up, no differences were found in the occurrence of MACE, 7 (5.34%) patients in in-hospital CR and 4 (3.15%) in after-discharge CR strategy; (hazard ratio, 0.59; 95% confidence interval, 0.17 to 2.02; p = 0.397).
Conclusions: In STEMI patients with MVD, an after-discharge CR strategy reduces the length of index hospitalization without an increased risk of MACE after 12 months of follow-up.
Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov number: NCT04743154.
Copyright: © 2024 Rumiz et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.