Abstract

History: A 69-year-old man presented with severe medically refractory stable angina and was referred for revascularization of a right coronary artery (RCA) chronic total occlusion (CTO Figure 1.A ). The patient had undergone coronary artery bypass surgery 16 years prior as well as numerous percutaneous coronary intervention. Echocardiography demonstrated normal left ventricular systolic function. Procedure: Antegrade wiring was attempted first with a Fielder XT guidewire (GW) and a Turnpike Spiral microcatheter (MC Figure 1.B ). Due to the ambiguous proximal cap and long occlusion length, retrograde crossing was attempted next. After attempting to cross multiple collaterals a Sion Black crossed a proximal septal collateral ( Figure 1.C ), but several MCs could not follow the GW, despite ballooning the collateral with a 1.5 mm balloon and GuideLiner support. We switched to antegrade dissection and re-entry with a knuckled Gladius Mongo that reached the distal RCA ( Figure 1.D ). With the Stingray balloon and ‘double blind stick and swap’ technique we crossed into the distal true lumen, but the GW position was lost after removal of the balloon. We crossed with the retrograde GW to the antegrade guide catheter (Figure 1.E) , but ‘tip in’ technique as well as passing the retrograde MC was not successful. Using a new Stingray balloon and the retrograde GW as true lumen marker ( Figure 1.F ) we crossed into the distal true lumen. After drug-eluting stent implantation ( Figure 1.G ) the distal bifurcation was recanalized with kissing balloon dilation ( Figure 1.H ) and implantation of another stent with a nice final result ( Figure 1.I ). Conclusion: Persistence is key in CTO PCI in patients with severe medically refractory stable angina and limited revascularization options. Crossing the collaterals with MC can be challenging: possible solutions are smaller MC, predilation in septal collateral, ‘tip in’ or switching to another crossing strategy such as ADR with retrograde facilitation.

Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call