Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 18, 2026
Author Spotlight: Enhancing Coronary Artery Revascularization
Published on: September 15, 2023
Five-Year Outcomes after PCI or CABG for Left Main Coronary Disease
Gregg W Stone1, A Pieter Kappetein1, Joseph F Sabik1
1From the Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (G.W.S., R. Mehran), the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (G.W.S., D.K., N.J.L., R. Mehran, I.K., P.G., A.C., O.D.), Mount Sinai Heart at Mount Sinai Saint Luke's (J. Puskas), and New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University Medical Center (D.K., N.J.L., I.K.) - all in New York; Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam (A.P.K.), Medisch Centrum Leeuwarden, Leeuwarden (P.W.B., A.J.B.), and Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam (R. Modolo) - all in the Netherlands; University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, Cleveland (J.F.S.); the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (S.J.P., J.G.) and the International Centre for Circulatory Health, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London (P.W.S.), London, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford (A. Banning), and University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, Leicester (M.H., A.G.) - all in the United Kingdom; Hôpital Privé Jacques Cartier, Ramsay Générale de Santé, Massy, France (M.-C.M.); Piedmont Heart Institute, Atlanta (D.E.K., W.M.B.); Semmelweis University, Budapest (B.M., F.H.), and the University of Szeged, Szeged (I.U., G.B.) - both in Hungary; Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (S.M., N.N.) and Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur de Montréal (E.S., P.P., P.G.), Montreal; Hospital Clinic, Barcelona (M.S., J. Pomar); Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, and American Heart of Poland, Ustron - both in Poland (P.E.B., A. Bochenek); University of Campinas, Campinas, Brazil (R. Modolo); Abbott Vascular, Santa Clara, CA (C.A.S.); and Gagnon Cardiovascular Institute, Morristown Medical Center, Morristown, NJ (P.G.).
Background:
Long-term outcomes after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with contemporary drug-eluting stents, as compared with coronary-artery bypass grafting (CABG), in patients with left main coronary artery disease are not clearly established.
Methods:
We randomly assigned 1905 patients with left main coronary artery disease of low or intermediate anatomical complexity (according to assessment at the participating centers) to undergo either PCI with fluoropolymer-based cobalt-chromium everolimus-eluting stents (PCI group, 948 patients) or CABG (CABG group, 957 patients). The primary outcome was a composite of death, stroke, or myocardial infarction.
Results:
At 5 years, a primary outcome event had occurred in 22.0% of the patients in the PCI group and in 19.2% of the patients in the CABG group (difference, 2.8 percentage points; 95% confidence interval [CI], -0.9 to 6.5; P = 0.13). Death from any cause occurred more frequently in the PCI group than in the CABG group (in 13.0% vs. 9.9%; difference, 3.1 percentage points; 95% CI, 0.2 to 6.1). In the PCI and CABG groups, the incidences of definite cardiovascular death (5.0% and 4.5%, respectively; difference, 0.5 percentage points; 95% CI, -1.4 to 2.5) and myocardial infarction (10.6% and 9.1%; difference, 1.4 percentage points; 95% CI, -1.3 to 4.2) were not significantly different. All cerebrovascular events were less frequent after PCI than after CABG (3.3% vs. 5.2%; difference, -1.9 percentage points; 95% CI, -3.8 to 0), although the incidence of stroke was not significantly different between the two groups (2.9% and 3.7%; difference, -0.8 percentage points; 95% CI, -2.4 to 0.9). Ischemia-driven revascularization was more frequent after PCI than after CABG (16.9% vs. 10.0%; difference, 6.9 percentage points; 95% CI, 3.7 to 10.0).
Conclusions:
In patients with left main coronary artery disease of low or intermediate anatomical complexity, there was no significant difference between PCI and CABG with respect to the rate of the composite outcome of death, stroke, or myocardial infarction at 5 years. (Funded by Abbott Vascular; EXCEL ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01205776.).
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
01:27Coronary Artery Disease V: Interprofessional Care
01:28Acute Coronary Syndrome IV: Interprofessional Care
01:24Cardiac Catheterization III: Left Heart Catheterization
01:29Cardiomyopathy V: Interprofessional Care
01:30Acute Coronary Syndrome III: Diagnostic Studies
01:26Angina IV: Management