Restenosis after directional coronary atherectomy. Effects of luminal diameter and deep wall excision.

BACKGROUND: Deep wall excision during directional atherectomy has been reported in one study to increase the risk of subsequent restenosis. On the other hand, we have observed that the probability of late (6-month) restenosis is reduced by maximizing postprocedure luminal diameter. Although such maximal luminal enlargement by directional atherectomy has not increased procedural complications in our experience, it might well increase the incidence of subintimal (deep wall component) recovery. We performed this study to evaluate the relative influences of luminal enlargement and deep wall component excision on postatherectomy restenosis. METHODS AND RESULTS: Atherectomy resulted in a 7 +/- 15% residual stenosis with 50%) for type II, type III, or types II+III (p = 0.86). Stratification by vessel characteristics also failed to show any association between restenosis and deep wall component recovery in any subgroup, including native coronary (p = 0.85), left anterior descending coronary artery (p = 0.70), right coronary artery (p = 0.51), saphenous graft (p = 0.78), or prior restenosis lesions (p = 0.98). Paradoxically, the recovery of adventitia (type III excision) was associated with a lower late percent stenosis (p = 0.03) and a trend toward less restenosis (p = 0.11) compared with type I excisions. A multiple logistic regression model was constructed that demonstrated immediate postprocedure luminal diameter (p = 0.02) to be an independent determinant of restenosis. In this model, the presence of deep wall components (type II+III) did not adversely affect (p = 0.86) restenosis, but the recovery of adventitia was associated with an independent trend toward reduced restenosis (p = 0.06). CONCLUSIONS: The immediate goal of directional atherectomy should be to safely provide the largest lumen possible in order to reduce restenosis. The recovery of deep wall components does not appear to jeopardize the beneficial effect that obtaining a large immediate postprocedure lumen diameter has on reducing the incidence of late restenosis.