Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the clinical outcomes of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with everolimus-eluting stents (EES) for the treatment of unprotected left main coronary artery (ULMCA) disease.
Background: The standard of care for the treatment of ULMCA disease is coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Data suggest that PCI with drug-eluting stents is a viable alternative to CABG for the treatment of ULMCA disease. Randomized trials demonstrated superior event-free survival with EES compared with paclitaxel-eluting stents in non-ULMCA lesions. However, data with ULMCA PCI with EES are limited.
Methods: This multicenter international registry included 178 patients from the United States, South Korea, and Italy who underwent ULMCA PCI with EES from 2008 to 2010. The primary endpoint was freedom from target lesion failure (TLF), defined as cardiac death, myocardial infarction (MI), and ischemia-driven target lesion revascularization (TLR) at 1 year.
Results: At 30 days, 4 patients (2.2%) died from cardiac causes, and no patient experienced MI or TLR. One-year freedom from TLF was 94.4%. One-year freedom from cardiac death, MI, and ischemia-driven TLR was 96.6%, 98.9%, and 98.3%, respectively. Two patients (1.1%) had definite or probable stent thrombosis.
Conclusion: PCI with EES is safe and effective and may be a viable option for the treatment of ULMCA disease.