Percutaneous coronary intervention in patients refused from surgery: a different entity?

Patients with left main or multivessel coronary artery disease (CAD) and depressed left ventricular function undergoing coronary artery by-pass grafting (CABG) have a markedly worse prognosis compared with general population, making surgical treatment of CAD unattractive especially when features such as poor distal targets, severe comorbidities, reoperation, advanced age, or impaired renal function are present. At the same time, evidence for improved clinical outcome in this high-risk subset of patients using mini-invasive surgical techniques (i.e. off-pump CABG or hybrid coronary revascularization) is still lacking (13). On the other hand, recent studies suggested that a revascularization strategy with a protected percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) using a mechanical assistance device may be a viable alternative for these patients. In particular, the development of percutaneous left ventricular assist devices such as Impella has been an important step to facilitate the care of these high-risk patients. In this review we discuss about conditions for surgical ineligibility and the clinical outcome of PCI in high-risk patients ineligible for surgery. Moreover, we discuss about the evidences supporting the use of Impella in high-risk patients ineligible for surgery.