Incidence, mechanisms, treatment, and outcomes of donor vessel injury during percutaneous coronary interventions for chronic total occlusion

Background: Donor vessel injury is a potentially life-threatening complication of chronic total occlusion (CTO) percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

Aims: Our goal was to examine the incidence, mechanisms, treatment, and outcomes of patients with donor vessel injury in a large multicenter CTO PCI registry.

Methods: We analyzed the baseline clinical and angiographic characteristics, and procedural outcomes of 12,349 CTO PCIs performed between 2012 and 2022 at 44 centers.

Results: The incidence of donor vessel injury was 0.35% (n = 43). The baseline clinical characteristics of patients with and without donor vessel injury were similar. Cases complicated by donor vessel injury were more complex with higher Japanese CTO score (2.9 ± 1.1 vs. 2.4 ± 1.3; p = 0.004) and lower procedural success rate (69.8% vs. 85.2%; p = 0.004). The retrograde approach was used more commonly in donor vessel injury cases (68.9% vs. 30.9%; p < 0.001). Most (53.5%) donor vessel injuries were guide catheter-induced, whereas 20.9% were due to donor vessel thrombosis. Of the 43 patients with donor vessel injury, 36 (83.7%) were treated with stenting and seven (16.3%) received a left ventricular assist device. The incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) was significantly higher in cases with donor vessel injury (23.3% vs. 2.0%; p < 0.001). Of the 43 patients with donor vessel injury, five patients (11.6%) experienced acute myocardial infarction and four patients (9.3%) died.

Conclusions: Donor vessel injury, occurred in 0.35% of CTO PCIs performed by experienced operators, was mainly due to guide catheter-induced dissection or thrombosis and was associated with lower procedural success and higher MACE.