Efficacy of directional coronary atherectomy before stent implantation for coronary ostial lesions.

We evaluated stent implantation following directional coronary atherectomy (DCA) for coronary ostial lesions. The subjects were 27 patients (27 lesions) who underwent stent deployment after DCA, and 47 patients (47 lesions) who underwent stent deployment alone as the control group. There were no differences in numbers of lesions with multi-vessel disease, left anterior descending artery lesions, de novo lesions or reference vessel diameters in the two groups. The percent diameter stenosis after stent implantation was lower in the DCA-stent group than in the stent-alone group (9 +/- 10% versus 17 +/- 14%, respectively; p < 0.01). The initial procedural success rate was 92.6% in the DCA-stent group and 91.4% in the stent-alone group. The initial clinical success rate was 100% in the DCA-stent group and 95.7% in the stent-alone group. The restenosis rate was lower in the DCA-stent group (20% versus 43% in the stent-alone group). This study showed that debulking by DCA before stenting is more effective compared to stenting alone.