Drug-Eluting Stents vs. CABG for Left-Main Disease

Even after accounting for the likelihood that specific patients would undergo one type of revascularization versus the other, we still need long-term randomized data to determine whether left-main stenting is ready for prime time.

Several centers have reported their experience with drug-eluting stenting of left-main coronary disease (e.g., Journal Watch Cardiology Apr 8 2005). In a single-center, retrospective Italian study comparing outcomes after drug-eluting stent PCI versus CABG in left-main disease, researchers used propensity analysis to account for the likelihood that a patient would undergo one type of revascularization versus the other.

Of 249 patients with left-main disease revascularized during a 28-month period, 107 (87 with distal bifurcation lesions) underwent drug-eluting stent PCI and 142 underwent CABG. Diabetes prevalence was similar in the two groups, but PCI patients were younger and less likely to have hypertension or renal failure than were CABG …

Reviewing Author

Howard C. Herrmann, MD

Drug-Eluting Stents vs. CABG for Left-Main Disease

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Reviewing Author