Background: To evaluate nationwide trends in the utilization of Multivessel Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (MVPCI) in the past compared to recent years using a large database from 1988 to 2004.
Method: The Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) database was utilized to calculate the age-adjusted rate for multivessel percutaneous coronary intervention (MVPCI) from 1988 to 2004. Specific ICD-9-CM codes for MVPCI were used to compile the data. Patient demographic data were also analyzed from the database.
Results: According to the NIS database, MVPCI was performed in 241,319 patients from 1988 to 2004. Males underwent MVPCI twice as many as compared to females (male: 67.87%, female 32.13%). The mean age for these patients was 64.89 +/- 11.84 years old. From 1988, the age-adjusted rate for MVPCI gradually increased to more than three times in 1998 [(6.62 per 100,000 (95%CI = 5.92-7.33) in 1988 to 23.92 per 100,000 (95%CI = 21.62-26.22, P < 0.01) in 1998] and accelerated to more than 6 times that of 1988 at the end of the study in 2004 (41.50 per 100,000 (95%CI = 37.84-45.16). In recent years, this trend was similar for both genders and ethnicities.
Conclusion: The utilization of MVPCI has increased six times from 1988 to 2004, with acceleration in recent years. The cause of this acceleration is most likely related to the advancement in the percutaneous coronary interventional techniques.