Immediate complete revascularization in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction and multivessel disease treated by primary percutaneous coronary intervention: Insights from the ORBI registry.

Background: Recent studies demonstrated the superiority of complete revascularization (CR) in patients treated by primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pPCI) in ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI).

Aim: To evaluate whether immediate CR improves in-hospital outcomes in patients with STEMI with multivessel disease.

Methods: Data from a prospective multicentre registry including 9365 patients with STEMI were analysed. Patients with multivessel disease and treated with pPCI (n=3412) were included and separated into two groups according to whether immediate CR was performed during the index procedure. The primary endpoint was in-hospital major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), defined as a composite of all-cause death, non-fatal myocardial infarction, stroke and definite stent thrombosis. Secondary endpoints were individual components of MACE and major bleeding. Multivariable Cox regression and propensity-score adjustment were performed to account for confounders.

Results: Immediate CR was performed in 98 patients (2.9%), whereas 3314 patients (97.1%) were incompletely revascularized. The prevalence of severe heart failure (Killip class III or IV) and significant lesions of the left main coronary artery were higher in the immediate CR group (21.6% vs. 13.5% and 24.5% vs. 6.7%, respectively; P<0.001 for both). After adjustment, immediate CR was not associated with reduced rates of MACE (hazard ratio [HR] 0.64, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.31-1.35; P=0.24) or all-cause death (HR: 0.52, 95% CI: 0.23-1.16; P=0.11), but with increased risks of definite stent thrombosis (HR: 3.93, 95% CI: 1.12-13.75; P=0.03) and major bleeding (HR: 17.46, 95% CI: 2.29-133.17; P=0.006).

Conclusion: Immediate CR did not improve in-hospital outcomes of patients with STEMI with multivessel disease in this analysis. Randomized studies are warranted to elucidate the optimal timing of CR in patients with STEMI.