Clinical outcome of percutaneous transluminal coronary rotational atherectomy in patients with end-stage renal disease.

The clinical results of percutaneous transluminal coronary rotational atherectomy (PTCRA) in dialysis patients were retrospectively evaluated in comparison with coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). From 1997 to 2001, 44 consecutive dialysis patients with 61 lesions underwent PTCRA and 55 consecutive dialysis patients underwent CABG. The initial success rate of PTCRA was 98%. The PTCRA group had a shorter hospital stay (13+/-17 vs 60+/-35 days, p=0.0001) and a lower rate of complications (11% vs 42%, p=0.001) than the CABG group. Although neither event-free survival without death nor myocardial infarction (MI) was significantly different between the CABG and PTCRA groups during the mean follow-up period of 21+/-14 months, 20 patients (45%) in the PTCRA group needed repeat revascularization of the target lesion. In conclusion, PTCRA may be a safe alternative modality for revascularization of high-risk CABG candidates, with excellent short-term results although the long-term outcome is inferior to that of CABG because of the higher restenosis rate.