Long‐term follow‐up of polytetrafluoroethylene‐covered stents implanted during percutaneous coronary intervention for management of acute coronary perforation

OBJECTIVE: To determine the long-term outcomes for patients receiving polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)-covered stents as definitive therapy, in our institution, for the management of acute coronary perforation. BACKGROUND: Coronary perforation as a complication of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is associated with high morbidity and mortality. Management options included observation only or a combination of several or all of these approaches: reversal of anticoagulation, prolonged balloon inflation, deployment of a standard stent, emergent cardiac surgery, or insertion of a PTFE-covered stent. METHODS: With our IRB approval, records of 12,093 consecutive patients who received PCI during a 5-year period from January 2002 to December 2006 were reviewed and 50 patients who had coronary perforation as a complication of PCI were identified. RESULTS: Of the 21 patients who received a PTFE-covered stent to manage coronary perforation, one died secondary to acute thrombosis within the PTFE-covered stent in the first 24 hrs and one required emergent cardiac surgery due to continued contrast extravasation despite PTFE-covered stent deployment. The other 19 patients were followed long term (mean 55 months) and only one survivor had a potentially life-threatening outcome (subacute stent thrombosis) over that time period. CONCLUSION: Utilization of a PTFE-covered stent may be a reasonable short- and long-term option to manage acute coronary perforation that occurs during PCI. On the basis of this limited experience, successful PTFE-covered stent deployment as the conclusive treatment for coronary perforation is associated with a favorable long-term event-free survival rate.