Abstract
Over a 3-year period, we performed 232 consecutive percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) procedures in 171 patients, 132 (77%) of whom were men and 39 (23%) of whom were women. The patients' ages ranged from 26 to 85 years (average, 56.5 years). All of the patients had symptoms of coronary insufficiency, manifested by stable angina in 106 cases, unstable angina in 44 cases, post myocardial infarction angina in 19 cases, arrhythmia in 1 case, and syncope in 1 case.
All PTCA dilatations were done by the same operators, using the same technique. The procedures were categorized as follows: Group 1 included 157 single-vessel PTCA procedures, which had a success rate of 87.3%; these included 52 dilatations of the right coronary artery (success rate, 84%), 94 dilatations of the left anterior descending artery (success rate, 86%), and 11 dilatations of the left circumflex system (success rate, 90%). Group 2 included 29 double-vessel PTCA procedures (58 total procedures), which had an 88% success rate, and group 3 comprised 17 vein-graft PTCAs, with an 86.9% success rate.
Complications included coronary artery occlusion in 15 cases (9.0%), myocardial infarction in four cases (2.3%), and cardiac arrhythmia in one case (0.6%). There were no deaths. Fifteen patients (8.8%) underwent coronary artery bypass surgery during the same hospitalization (3.8% of these operations were performed on an emergency basis). Thirty-six patients (15.5%) had a second PTCA procedure owing to restenosis, which occurred either before the patient was discharged from the hospital (eight cases) or 3 to 30 months after the original procedure. We conclude that, when performed by experienced operators with optimal technical resources, PTCA results in an acceptable success rate; therefore, this procedure should be a satisfactory method of myocardial revascularization in well-selected patients with either single- or double-vessel coronary artery disease. (Texas Heart Institute Journal 1987; 14:53-56)
Keywords: Angioplasty, transluminal
Keywords: coronary artery
Keywords: myocardial revascularization
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