Orbital atherectomy of calcified coronary ostial lesions

To evaluate the feasibility and safety of coronary orbital atherectomy (OA) for the treatment of calcified ostial lesions.

Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is increasingly being completed in complex patients and lesions. OA is effective for severely calcified coronary lesions; however, there is a dearth of evidence on the use of OA in ostial lesions, especially with long-term outcome data.

Data were obtained from a retrospective analysis of patients who underwent OA of heavily calcified ostial lesions followed by stent implantation from December 2010 to June 2019 at two high-volume PCI centers. Kaplan-Meier analysis was utilized to assess the primary endpoints of 30-day, 1-year, and 2-year freedom-from (FF) major adverse cardiac events (MACE: death, myocardial infarction, or target vessel revascularization), stroke, and stent thrombosis (ST).

A total of 56 patients underwent OA to treat heavily calcified ostial coronary lesions. The mean age was 72 years with a high prevalence of diabetes (55%) and heart failure (36%), requiring hemodynamic support (14%). There was high FF angiographic complications (93%), and at 30-day, 1-year, and 2-year, a high FF-MACE (96%, 91%, and 88%), stroke (98%, 96%, and 96%), and ST (100%), respectively.

This study represents the largest real-world experience of coronary OA use in heavily calcified ostial lesions with long-term outcomes over 2 years. The main finding in this retrospective analysis is that, despite the complex patients and lesions included in this analysis, OA appears to be a feasible and safe treatment option for calcified coronary ostial lesions.