Comparison of clinical outcomes using stents versus no stents after percutaneous coronary intervention for proximal left anterior descending versus proximal right and left circumflex coronary arteries

Previous studies have demonstrated that proximal left anterior descending (LAD) stenoses have higher rates of restenosis after angioplasty than stenoses in other coronary segments. Stenting strategies may reduce this high rate of LAD restenosis. The study population included 1,289 patients with proximal coronary artery stenoses treated with percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) with or without stents for single-vessel coronary disease between 1994 and 1999. Patients were divided into 4 groups: non-stent PCI in the proximal LAD artery (n = 168), non-stent PCI in proximal right/circumflex artery (n = 217), stent in the proximal LAD artery (n = 364), and stent to proximal right/circumflex artery (n = 540). Procedural success was higher in the stenting groups, but there were no significant differences in the major in-hospital events between the different lesion locations among the groups. At 1-year follow-up, there was no difference in mortality or myocardial infarction between the groups. There was no significant difference in the rate of target lesion revascularization (TLR) in the patients with proximal LAD stents compared with the patients with proximal right/circumflex coronary artery stents (10.1% vs 13.8%, p = 0.11). In the patients who did not receive stents with proximal narrowings, there was a significant increase in TLR in the LAD group compared with the right/circumflex group (21.1% vs 12.5%, p = 0.04). Thus, patients with proximal stenoses treated with non-stenting strategies have lower procedural success than those treated with stenting strategies; the patients with proximal LAD non-stent PCI have significantly higher rates of clinical restenosis than patients with proximal right and circumflex stenoses. A stenting strategy for proximal LAD stenoses appears to attenuate the differences of clinical restenosis noted after non-stent PCI.