Seven-year clinical outcomes of unprotected left main coronary artery stenting with drug-eluting stent and bare-metal stent.

BACKGROUND: The superiority of drug-eluting stents (DES) over bare-metal stents (BMS) 7 years after unprotected left main coronary artery (LMCA) stenting has not been investigated.

METHODS AND RESULTS: From 2003 to 2005, 182 patients underwent stent implantation for unprotected LMCA disease (DES, 96 patients; BMS, 86 patients; acute coronary syndrome cases excluded), and the 7-year clinical outcomes between the DES and BMS groups were compared. The incidence of cardiac death or non-fatal myocardial infarction was similar between the DES and BMS groups (11.0% vs. 13.5%, P=0.78). The incidence of target lesion revascularization (TLR) at 7 years was significantly lower in the DES group than in the BMS group (26.4% vs. 40.5%, P=0.009); the incidence from 1 to 4 years and that beyond 4 years were similar between the DES and BMS groups (8.9% vs. 7.9%, P=0.97; 10.0% vs. 8.7%, P=0.74, respectively). Among patients with bifurcation lesions, whereas the incidence of 7-year TLR was significantly lower in the DES group than the BMS group in patients undergoing single-stent procedures (15.9% vs. 48.6%, P=0.002), it was similar between the 2 groups in patients undergoing 2-stent procedures (38.5% vs. 39.3%, P=0.49).

CONCLUSIONS: With the exception of the 2-stent procedure, the 7-year outcomes after DES implantation for LMCA disease were superior to those after BMS implantation because of the lower TLR rate, when considering TLR during the late phase.