Key result
Balloon pulmonary angioplasty for chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension requires further accumulation of experience and knowledge to overcome low efficacy and high complication rates.
Balloon pulmonary angioplasty for CTEPH requires further experience and knowledge to improve its efficacy and safety profile.
To date, the standard treatment for chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) has been surgical pulmonary endarterectomy (PEA) followed by life-time anticoagulation therapy [1]. However, excellent results with PEA have been limited to select centres with experience and expertise; many patients who are possible candidates for PEA at expert centres would be considered ineligible in many countries [2]. Medical treatment has shown little or no improvement in haemodynamic parameters in patients with CTEPH who are ineligible for PEA [3, 4]. Thus, despite partial success of balloon pulmonary angioplasty (BPA) in the USA [5], attempts to treat patients with CTEPH by BPA have increased in several countries where PEA is not widely performed [6–8]. Before starting a BPA programme, two main problems in the initial report [5] need to be resolved: its low efficacy and high incidence of complication. To improve efficacy and safety of balloon pulmonary angioplasty, accumulation of experience and knowledge is needed
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Matsubara et al. (2017) conducted an editorial in chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH). balloon pulmonary angioplasty (BPA) was evaluated. Balloon pulmonary angioplasty for chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension requires further accumulation of experience and knowledge to overcome low efficacy and high complication rates.
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