Debulking of chronic coronary total occlusions with rotational or directional atherectomy before stenting: Final results of DOCTORS study.

Objective: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of pre-stent plaque debulking strategy for percutaneous coronary intervention for CTO.

Background: Drug-eluting stents (DES) reduce lesion recurrence after percutaneous coronary intervention for chronic total occlusion (CTO). However, massive plaque burden or calcified plaque sometime hinders optimal stenting.