Comparison of successful versus failed percutaneous coronary intervention in patients with chronic total occlusion: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: The optimal treatment strategy of chronic total occlusion (CTO) is currently debated. This meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the long-term clinical outcomes of successful percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) of CTO. Methods: Electronic databases were searched for studies comparing long-term outcomes between successful PCI in patients with CTO using drug-eluting stents and failed procedures. Meta-analysis was conducted with major adverse cardiac events (MACE) and all-cause mortality during the longest follow-up as endpoints. The combined hazard ratios (HRs) were applied to assess the correlation between successful CTO PCI and MACE/all-cause mortality. Results: Eight studies consisting of 6,211 patients published between 2012 and 2020 met our inclusion criteria, and the CTO PCI success rate was 81.2%. Patients in the failed group were much older, and more likely to have morbidities (hypertension and prior myocardial infarction), reduced left ventricular ejection fraction, and severe lesion characteristics (multivessel disease and moderate/severe calcifica- tion). Pooled results indicated that successful CTO PCI was significantly associated with prognosis. Compared to failed recanalization, patients receiving successful procedures had an improved MACE (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.50, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.40-0.61, p < 0.001). Subgroup analyses further revealed the prognostic value of successful CTO PCI. However, no difference was observed regarding all-cause mortality (HR: 0.79, 95% CI: 0.61-1.02, p = 0.074). Conclusions: The present study showed that CTO recanalization was associated with improved long-term outcomes. However, randomized trials are needed to confirm the results due to the mismatch of baseline characteristics. (Cardiol J 2024; 31, 1: 15-23)