How to prevent and treat complications of the retrograde approach to chronic total occlusion percutaneous coronary intervention.

The retrograde approach is important for achieving high success rates in chronic total occlusion percutaneous coronary intervention. Operators must be aware of complications that can occur during retrograde CTO PCI; they must continually try to prevent them and be ready to treat them, if they occur. Systematic, prospective study of complications in CTO PCI is needed for the development of additional preventive and treatment strategies.