Three‐year clinical outcomes after coronary stenting of chronic total occlusion using sirolimus‐eluting stents: Insights from the rapamycin‐eluting stent evaluated at rotterdam cardiology hospital—(RESEARCH) registry

BACKGROUND: The use of drug eluting stents (DES) in patients with a successfully recanalized chronic total occlusion (CTO) has been associated with a significant decrease in the need for repeat revascularization, and a favorable short-term clinical outcome when compared with the use of bare metal stents (BMS). Our group, however, has previously reported similar rates of target lesion revascularisation (TLR) and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) at 3 years follow-up in patients with a successfully opened CTO who were treated with either a sirolimus eluting stent (SES) or a BMS. The objective of this report was to evaluate the outcomes of these patients at 5-years clinical follow-up. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 140 (BMS 64, SES 76) patients with successfully opened CTOs were included. Seven patients died in the BMS group whilst nine patients died in the SES group (P = 0.90). Noncardiac death was the major component of all-cause mortality (11 noncardiac deaths vs. 5 cardiac). There were two and three myocardial infarctions (MI) in the BMS and SES group, respectively (P = 1.0). The composite of death and MI occurred in seven (10.9%) and eleven (14.5%) patients in the BMS and SES group, respectively (P = 0.53). Clinically driven TLR was performed in eight patients (12.5%) in the BMS group, and five (6.6%) in the SES group (P = 0.26). Non-TLR target vessel revascularization was performed in one patient in the BMS group, and four in the SES group (P = 0.37). The 5-year device-oriented cumulative MACE rate was 15.6% and 11.8% in the BMS and SES group, respectively (P = 0.56). CONCLUSION: In patients with a successfully treated CTO, clinical outcome after 5 years was similar between SES and BMS, however, clinically driven TLR was slightly higher in the BMS group.