Antegrade Techniques for Chronic Total Occlusions
By convention, a total obstruction of the coronary artery with no flow at the occluded segment that has been present for at least 3 months is termed as chronic total occlusion or CTO. This is to be distinguished from a sudden occlusion of the coronary artery lumen by a thrombus during an acute myocardial infarction. Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) of CTO is increasingly being performed by interventional cardiologists with improved success rates. In this article, the focus will be on antegrade techniques that will assist the operator to maximise the success rates and to minimise the complications.
Singapore Heart Stroke and Cancer Centre, Singapore.
Michael Cl
MC
Lim
Antegrade techniques; chronic total occlusion; percutaneous coronary intervention