[Rotational atherectomy in the drug-eluting stent era: a recent single-center experience]

Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) of heavily calcified lesions is a challenge for the interventional cardiologist and is associated with a high rate of restenosis and target lesion revascularization (TLR). Adequate lesion preparation by rotational atherectomy followed by drug-eluting stent implantation has shown favorable results.

To report the recent experience of our center with rotational atherectomy (RA) of complex and heavily calcified coronary lesions.

We retrospectively analyzed consecutive patients who underwent PCI with RA in our center between January 2009 and December 2010. A total of 42 patients were included, 65% of whom had been previously refused for coronary artery bypass grafting due to unfavorable coronary anatomy or high surgical risk. RA was performed using the standard Boston Scientific Rotablator(®) system. The procedure was performed ad-hoc in 50% of patients and transradial access was used in 35%. Data were collected on immediate post-procedural events and major cardiac events during follow-up - cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, TLR and recurrent angina.

Of 1650 PCIs performed in a 23-month period from January 2009, 42 (2.5%) involved RA, a total of 42 patients (mean age 70.3±10.1 years, 67% male, 55% diabetic), three of whom had left main disease, six had three-vessel disease, 18 had two-vessel disease and the other 15 had single-vessel disease. Of the lesions treated, 71% were >20 mm long and classified in 69% of cases as type C according to the ACC/AHA lesion classification, 4% being chronic total occlusions. The left anterior descending artery was treated in 56% of the procedures. The mean number of burrs used per lesion was 1.3 and a total of 69 stents were implanted, 81% of which were drug-eluting. During follow-up three patients had recurrent angina, one required TLR and two died due to a cardiovascular event. There was significant clinical improvement in 83% of patients.

This study demonstrates that rotational atherectomy followed by stenting in heavily calcified lesions can nowadays be performed with high success rates and few complications, extending the possibility of coronary revascularization to a greater number of patients.