Long-term outcomes of successful chronic total occlusion percutaneous coronary interventions using the antegrade and retrograde approach.

Objective: To compare long-term clinical outcomes of chronic total occlusion (CTO) percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) using the retrograde and antegrade approach.

Background: There is limited long-term clinical outcomes data on the retrograde approach to CTO PCI.

Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of the long-term clinical outcomes of 193 consecutive patients who underwent successful CTO PCI at our institution between March 2008 and December 2011.

Results: Mean age was 63.6 ± 8.3 years. The target vessel was right coronary artery in 52.6%, left anterior descending artery in 24.5% and circumflex in 21.4% of cases. The retrograde approach was used in 41 patients (21.2%). The mean stent length was longer in the retrograde group (83 ± 32 vs. 64 ± 32 mm, P = 0.001). Two major procedural complications occurred, both in the retrograde group (P = 0.012). During a median follow-up of 2.0 years compared to the antegrade CTO PCI group, patients who underwent retrograde CTO PCI were more likely to undergo target lesion revascularization (TLR) (45.6% vs. 25.7%, P = 0.006). No significant difference was observed in the incidence of all-cause mortality, myocardial infarction, non-target vessel revascularization, or coronary artery bypass graft surgery between the 2 groups. On multivariate analysis, stent length was the only independent predictor of TLR during follow-up.

Conclusions: Retrograde CTO PCI was associated with higher incidence of TLR, but similar incidence of death and myocardial infarction compared to antegrade CTO PCI. These findings likely reflect the higher complexity of CTO lesions treated with the retrograde approach.