Background: Rotational atherectomy (RA) has been proven to treat coronary artery calcification (CAC) during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Cutting balloons (CBs) are modified balloons (MB). Purpose: We aim to assess the safety and efficacy of RA followed by CB angioplasty (ROTACUT) before stent placement in CAC. Methods: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and observational studies, which were retrieved by systematically searching PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Cochrane through January 2024. We used Stata version 17 to pool dichotomous data using risk ratio (RR) and continuous data using mean difference (MD), with a 95% confidence interval (CI). Results: We included eight studies with a total of 846 patients. There was no significant difference between ROTACUT and RA + bare balloons in major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) (RR: 0.60 with 95% CI [0.31, 1.16], P= 0.13), the incidence of cardiac death (RR: 1.32 with 95% CI [0.42, 4.14], P= 0.64), the incidence of target vessel revascularization (TVR) (RR: 1.89 with 95% CI [0.40, 8.84], P= 0.42), the incidence of target lesion revascularization (TLR) (RR: 0.83 with 95% CI [0.39, 1.79], P= 0.64), procedural duration (MD: 0.78 with 95% CI [-4.68, 6.24], P = 0.78), incidence of stent thrombosis (RR: 0.81 with 95% CI [0.22, 2.95], P= 0.75), and the incidence of any procedure-related complications (RR: 0.86 with 95% CI [0.42, 1.75], P= 0.68). Conclusion: ROTACUT and RA + bare balloons demonstrated similar efficacy and safety profiles in terms of MACE, cardiac death, TVR, TLR, procedural duration, stent thrombosis, and all safety outcomes.
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