Outpatient coronary angioplasty: feasible and safe.

This study tested the safety and feasibility of coronary angioplasty on an outpatient basis. The purpose of this approach includes cost-effectiveness and patient comfort. Six hundred forty-four patients were randomized to either transradial or transfemoral PTCA using 6 Fr equipment.

Complete versus culprit vessel percutaneous coronary intervention in multivessel disease: a randomized comparison.

Background: The purpose of this study was to compare the safety, efficacy, and costs of complete versus "culprit" vessel revascularization in multivessel coronary artery disease treated with percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI).

Methods: Patients with multivessel disease and an identified culprit vessel were randomly assigned to complete revascularization of vessels > or =50% stenoses (n = 108) versus revascularization limited to the culprit vessel (n = 111). The primary end point, major adverse cardiac events (MACE), were defined as cardiac or noncardiac death, myocardial infarction, need for coronary artery bypass graft surgery, and repeat PCI up to 1 year.

Safety, efficacy and costs associated with direct coronary stenting compared with stenting after predilatation: A randomised controlled trial.

Objectives: Comparison of the in-hospital success rates, procedural costs and short-term clinical outcomes of direct stenting versus stenting after balloon predilatation.

Methods: Altogether, 400 patients with angina pectoris and/or myocardial ischaemia due to coronary stenoses in a single native vessel were randomised to either direct stenting or stenting after predilatation. Baseline characteristics were evenly distributed between the two groups.

Impact of operator volume on overall major adverse cardiac events following direct coronary stent implantation versus stenting after predilatation.

Objectives: To determine the impact of operator experience on procedural, clinical and angiographic outcome after (direct) coronary stent implantation.

Background: Although for other forms of percutaneous coronary interventions an inverse relationship between operator volume and patient outcomes has been shown, the impact of operator volume on outcome after direct stenting has never been investigated.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed on data from a prospective randomized trial comparing direct stenting with that after predilatation.

Direct coronary stenting compared with stenting after predilatation is feasible, safe, and more cost-effective in selected patients: evidence to date indicating similar late outcomes.

Objectives: To review the currently available data from studies assessing feasibility, safety, clinical outcome and cost-effectiveness of direct stenting.

Background: With technical advances of stent designs and their delivery systems a new strategy has become increasingly popular: direct stent implantation without prior balloon dilatation.

Methods: The Medline database was searched from January 1996 to March 2001 for clinical trials investigating direct stenting using the index terms direct stenting, coronary intervention, percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA), PCI, angioplasty and ischemic heart disease.