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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.).
Insights
Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and coronary-artery bypass grafting (CABG) showed similar 5-year outcomes for left main coronary artery disease. However, PCI had higher rates of death from any cause and ischemia-driven revascularization.
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular Medicine
- Interventional Cardiology
- Clinical Trials
Background:
- Long-term outcomes comparing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with drug-eluting stents versus coronary-artery bypass grafting (CABG) for left main coronary artery disease (LMACAD) remain unclear.
- LMACAD is a critical condition requiring careful treatment strategy selection.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare the long-term efficacy and safety of PCI with drug-eluting stents versus CABG in patients with LMACAD.
- To evaluate a composite outcome of death, stroke, or myocardial infarction at 5 years.
Main Methods:
- A randomized trial involving 1905 patients with low or intermediate anatomical complexity LMACAD.
- Patients were assigned to either PCI with everolimus-eluting stents or CABG.
- The primary endpoint was a composite of death, stroke, or myocardial infarction.
Main Results:
- At 5 years, the composite outcome occurred in 22.0% of the PCI group and 19.2% of the CABG group (not statistically significant).
- All-cause mortality was higher in the PCI group (13.0%) compared to the CABG group (9.9%).
- Ischemia-driven revascularization was significantly more frequent after PCI (16.9%) than after CABG (10.0%).
Conclusions:
- In patients with LMACAD of low/intermediate complexity, PCI and CABG demonstrated no significant difference in the composite outcome of death, stroke, or myocardial infarction at 5 years.
- PCI was associated with a higher rate of all-cause death and a greater need for ischemia-driven revascularization compared to CABG.
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.).
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