Has multivessel angioplasty displaced surgical revascularization?

Over the years, PTCA has been proved a safe and effective therapy for single-vessel CAD. Given the record of favorable results for single-vessel angioplasty, the extension of angioplasty to multivessel CAD soon followed. The successful application of PTCA to multivessel disease has been facilitated by developments in balloon, guidewire, and guide catheter technology. Success rates have been satisfactory, and complications have remained acceptable. Furthermore, as an outgrowth of an understanding of the mechanism and effect of PTCA, guidelines have been developed to aid case selection. As emphasized earlier, these guidelines should weigh heavily in deciding whether to select PTCA as a treatment modality. Presently, in our opinion, PTCA has not yet completely displaced surgery for multivessel CAD. Surgical standby is required for safe PTCA, because emergency surgery can be lifesaving and limit myocardial infarction after failed angioplasty. It is doubtful that surgery will ever relinquish its position as the treatment of choice for left main coronary artery disease. Nor will elective surgery find wide application in single-vessel disease. Whether one mode of revascularization will emerge as the most efficacious for multivessel disease related to long-term survival, limitation of cardiac events, and cost will be addressed in the analysis of the ongoing randomized trials of surgery versus angioplasty. Andreas Gruentzig established that it was possible to work within the coronary artery in an alert and comfortable patient. Interventional cardiology has experienced rapid technologic growth. Many patients formerly treated with bypass surgery can be managed effectively with angioplasty. If effective bail-out methods for acute closure are proven effective and restenosis is limited to a small percentage of patients, angioplasty in some form will further displace CABG. Until those ultimate goals are achieved, the value of angioplasty compared with bypass surgery must rest with current local experience and the eagerly awaited results of randomized trials.