Percutaneous Coronary Intervention for Aorto-Ostial Chronic Total Occlusion: Evaluating Lesion Complexity and Procedural Outcomes

Background: PCI for aorto-ostial CTO remains challenging. The techniques for guidewire in aorto-ostial CTO may differ from those used in non-aorto-ostial CTOs, influenced by clinical and angiographic characteristics.

Objectives: This study aimed to assess the technical aspects and outcomes of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in patients with aorto-ostial chronic total occlusion (CTO).

Methods: This analysis included 420 patients with ostial CTO from the Japanese CTO-PCI Expert Registry, spanning January 2014 to December 2022. It examined the strategies and procedural outcomes of CTO PCI.

Results: Ostial CTO represented 420 of 10,814 (3.9%) of all CTO PCI cases. Within this subset, aorto-ostial CTO accounted for 218 of 420 (52%) cases. The technical success rate for aorto-ostial CTO was 88% (191/218). Aorto-ostial CTOs exhibited longer lesion lengths and were more likely to present with challenges such as distal target lumen ambiguity, calcification, and tortuosity compared with non-aorto-ostial CTOs. The retrograde approach was more commonly used in aorto-ostial CTO, with retrograde direct crossing being the most successful technique, especially in cases of flush CTO. A multivariate logistic analysis identified several factors significantly associated with unsuccessful aorto-ostial CTO PCI, including difficulties in engaging a guiding catheter, estimating the collateral channel (as assessed by the J-Channel score), and tortuosity.

Conclusions: Aorto-ostial CTOs are more complex and frequently require a retrograde approach. The availability of suitable interventional collateral channels is crucial for the success of these procedures.