Importance: Chronic total occlusion percutaneous coronary intervention (CTO-PCI) is not usually offered because of skepticism about long-term clinical benefits.
Objective: To assess the association of successful CTO-PCI with quality of life by analyzing the relevant domains of the Seattle Angina Questionnaire (SAQ).
Data sources: PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and Cochrane databases were searched to identify randomized trials and observational studies specifically addressing quality of life domains of SAQ from January 2010 to June 2022.
Study selection: Studies included reporting SAQ metrics such as angina frequency, physical limitation, and quality of life, before and after CTO-PCI.
Data extraction and synthesis: The present study was performed according to the Cochrane Collaboration and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses statements, in which fixed-effect or random-effect models with generic inverse-variance weighting depending on statistical homogeneity were applied. Data were extracted by 3 independent reviewers.
Outcomes and measures: The primary outcome was angina frequency; physical limitation and quality of life were assessed as secondary outcomes.
Results: Seven prospective randomized or observational studies (2500 patients) were included, with a mean (SD) participant age of 61.2 (2.1) years. CTO-PCI was associated with significantly improved quality-of-life metrics during a mean (SD) follow-up of 14.8 (16.3) months. In patients with successful procedures, angina episodes became less frequent (mean [SD] difference for SAQ angina frequency of 12.9 [3.1] survey points [95% CI, 7.1-19.8 survey points]; standardized mean difference was 0.54 [95% CI, 0.21-0.92]; P = .002; I2 = 86.4%) and they experienced less physical activity limitation (mean [SD] difference for SAQ physical limitation of 9.7 [6.2] survey points [95% CI, 3.5-16.2 survey points]; standardized mean difference was 0.42 [95% CI, 0.24-0.55]; P < .001; I2 = 20.9%), and greater quality-of-life domain (mean [SD] difference for SAQ quality of life of 14.9 [3.5] survey points [95% CI, 7.7-22.5 survey points]; standardized mean difference was 0.41 [95% CI, 0.25-0.61]; P < .001; I2 = 58.8%) compared with patients with optimal medical therapy or failed procedure. Furthermore, follow-up duration (point estimate, 0.03; 95% CI, 0.01-0.04; P = .01) was associated with a significant decrease in angina frequency in meta-regression analysis.
Conclusions and relevance: In this systematic review and meta-analysis examining quality of life following CTO-PCI, successful procedures were associated with improved quality-of-life parameters compared with patients on optimal medical therapy or after failed CTO-PCI. These findings suggest support for using PCI to treat CTOs in symptomatic patients unresponsive to medical treatment.