BACKGROUND: Historically, percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) in bifurcation lesions are associated with high rates of complications, especially due to suboptimal results in the lateral branch (LB) and the need for target lesion revascularization (TLR) during long-term follow-up. We assess the impact of drug-eluting stents in the late clinical follow-up of non-selected patients with bifurcation lesions coming from the daily clinical practice. METHODS: Since May, 2002, 195 patients with bifurcation lesions were treated consecutively at two clinical centers [drugeluting stent (DES) group = 89; non drug-eluting stent (NDES) group = 106] and followed up for two years. RESULTS: The two groups presented similar clinical profiles including mean age of 63 years and 25% with diabetes mellitus. The majority of lesions had significant involvement of the two branches (78% vs. 76%; p = 0.82), the provisional LB stent strategy was used in the majority of cases (75% DES vs. 89% NDES; p = 0.45), and the angiographic success in the lateral branch (TIMI 3 flow, residual stenosis < 50% without dissection) was achieved in 80% vs. 78% (p = 0.56) in the DES and NDES groups, respectively. After 24 months of follow-up, the DES group showed a higher survival free of TLR (97.8% vs. 82.1%; p < 0.0001), resulting in higher survival free of major adverse cardiac events (MACE) (93.3% vs. 77.4%; p = 0.003). Stent thrombosis occurred in 2 patients in each group. CONCLUSIONS: In non-selected patients from the "real-world", the use of DES to treat bifurcation coronary lesions was superior to the use of NDES stents in the long-term clinical follow-up, especially with respect to their clinical effectiveness in reducing the rates of TLR, with consequent increase in survival free from MACE, without compromising long-term safety.
Drug-eluting stents; Angioplasty, transluminal, percutaneous coronary; Coronary disease; Treatment outcome
