The first clinical experience with a novel directional coronary atherectomy catheter: Preliminary Japanese multicenter experience

AIMS: Despite development of drug eluting stents (DES), percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for bifurcation lesions using DES alone remains challenging. The aim of this study was to report on the initial clinical experience with a novel directional coronary atherectomy (DCA) catheter. METHODS AND RESULTS: Patients with de novo bifurcation lesions were entered into a prospective registry and a novel DCA catheter was used. Device, procedural success and in-hospital outcomes were evaluated. A total of 14 patients with bifurcation lesions were enrolled. DCA was performed successfully in all cases without any major procedure-related events (device success rate: 100%, procedural success rate: 100%). Four patients (29%) were treated without stent implantation and simple stenting was achieved in the other 10 patients. No in-hospital major adverse cardiac event was observed. CONCLUSIONS: PCI with a novel DCA catheter for bifurcation lesions may be safe and effective. The clinical significance of these findings needs to be determined in future studies. This study was performed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a novel directional coronary atherectomy catheter for bifurcation lesions. Both the device and procedural success rates were 100%. Complex stenting could be avoided in all cases. No inhospital major adverse cardiac event was observed. The novel directional coronary atherectomy catheter may be safe and effective for bifurcation lesions, even in this drug eluting stent era.