Percutaneous transluminal coronary recanalization: procedure, results, and acute complications.

Percutaneous transluminal coronary recanalization, a new therapeutic procedure used in acute myocardial infarction, offers significant reduction in mortality, as well as more effective limitation of the zone of infarction than has been possible with other pharmacologic treatment employed in the past. The risk of coronary angiography during acute myocardial infarction was surprisingly low, as was the risk of hemorrhagic complications following the intracoronary administration of relatively low doses of thrombolytic substances such as streptokinase. Mechanical recanalization was possible in about one fifth of patients and successful in approximately half of all such attempts, but complications occurred in a small percentage of attempts at this step. Coronary artery spasm was excluded as a possible cause of occlusion in almost all cases. Selective intracoronary infusion of streptokinase produced the highest degree of myocardial reperfusion, and best results were achieved when therapy was initiated shortly after thrombotic occlusion occurred. Residual stenosis of more than 75% luminal diameter narrowing was present in approximately three fourths of cases after complete thrombolysis, and the majority of patients remained appropriate candidates for coronary bypass surgery or for percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (Grüntzig procedure). Although complete analysis of the efficacy of selective recanalization was difficult because it was not possible to establish a suitable control group for purposes of comparison, the mortality of less than 1% in the present group of 232 patients within the first 6 hours following myocardial reperfusion provides an encouraging result.