Paclitaxel-Eluting Stents for Chronically Occluded Saphenous Vein Grafts (EOS) Study

Background: In postbypass patients, PCI on SVG CTO, rather than native vessel CTO, is another treatment option. However, the acute procedural and medium-term outcomes are unknown. Methods: Twenty-two consecutive, symptomatic postbypass patients underwent PCI on SVG CTO; angiographic success was seen in 16 patients (73%). The successful cases were evaluated at 1 year; restudy angiography was performed at 11 +/- 5 months in 15 patients (94%). Results: The patients had a mean age of 73 years with predominance of male (68%); the mean SVG age was 14 years. On average, patients received 3.4 PESs per lesion; the stent size was 3.5 +/- 0.4 mm with a total stent length of 98 +/- 34 mm. The use of embolic protection devices and glycoprotein IIb/ IIIa inhibitors was observed in 6 (38%) and 5 (31%) patients, respectively. The in-hospital major adverse cardiac event (MACE) was 13%, accountable by 2 patients with postprocedure myocardial infarction. At follow-up, 6 patients had angiographic restenosis (40%); there was 1 noncardiac death and 3 target vessel revascularizations. The 1-year MACE was 25%; the graft survival free of occlusion and revascularization was 56%. Conclusions: PCI on SVG CTO is a feasible approach with a fairly high success and low in-hospital complication. However, it is associated with a relatively high angiographic restenosis and MACE at 1 year. (J Interven Cardiol 2010;23:40-45).