Treatment of coronary bifurcation lesions with drug-eluting stents: insights from the first phase of the prospective multicenter german drug-eluting stent registry

Background: Controversy exists about the impact of treating bifurcations on overall outcome of coronary interventions using drug‐eluting stents (DES). We sought to investigate 1‐year outcome of the treatment of bifurcation lesions using DES in a large “real‐world” cohort. Methods and Results: Among 5,126 patients enrolled in phase I of the multicenter German Drug‐Eluting Stent Registry, 814 (16%) were treated for a bifurcation lesion. Patients with bifurcations were compared to those without bifurcations in terms of baseline characteristics, major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events (MACCE) and target vessel revascularization (TVR) at 1 year. Usage of sirolimus‐eluting stents (SES) versus paclitaxel‐eluting stents (PES) was also evaluated. In total, 1,021 and 5,189 stents were implanted in the bifurcation (1.25 stents/patient) and nonbifurcation (1.2 stents/patient) group, respectively, but 64.5% of bifurcation lesions were treated with a single stent. More complex lesion and procedural characteristics were observed in the bifurcation group. However, there was no difference in 1‐year MACCE rates (a composite of death, myocardial infarction, and stroke) between the bifurcation group and nonbifurcation group (8.1% vs. 8.3%, P = 0.85). Rates of TVR (11.2% vs. 10.8%, P = 0.75) and Academic Research Consoritum‐defined definite stent thrombosis (0.9% vs. 0.8%, P = 0.67) were also comparable. MACCE and TVR rates remained similar after adjustment for differences in baseline characteristics. MACCE and TVR in SES patients were 7.2% and 12.6% versus 8.7% and 10.2% in PES patients (P = 0.46 and P = 0.30, respectively). Conclusion: In this large multicenter registry, treatment of bifurcation lesions with DES appears effective and safe. The presence of bifurcations did not affect 1‐year outcomes after DES implantation. The outcomes for SES and PES were similar. (J Interven Cardiol 2012;25:344–352)