Comparison of 5-year outcomes in patients with and without unprotected left main coronary artery disease after treatment with sirolimus-eluting stents: insights from the j-Cypher registry.

OBJECTIVES: This study assessed 5-year outcomes after implantation of sirolimus-eluting stents (SES) for unprotected left main coronary artery (ULMCA) disease in comparison with that for non-left main disease.

BACKGROUND: More information on long-term outcomes after ULMCA stenting is needed.

METHODS: The j-Cypher is a multicenter prospective registry of consecutive patients undergoing SES implantation in Japan.

RESULTS: Among 12,812 patients enrolled in the j-Cypher registry, the unadjusted mortality rate at 5 years was significantly higher in patients with ULMCA stenting than in patients without ULMCA stenting (22.8% vs. 14.1%; p < 0.0001); however, the risk for death with ULMCA stenting was no longer significant after adjusting for confounders (hazard ratio: 1.18, 95% confidence interval: 0.95 to 1.46; p = 0.14). In the lesion-level comparison, the nonbifurcation ULMCA lesions treated exclusively with SES had a significantly lower rate of target lesion revascularization (TLR) than those in non-ULMCA nonbifurcation lesions (2.4% vs. 12.7%; p = 0.04). Among bifurcation lesions, those treated with a provisional 2-stent approach had similar rates of TLR (12.1% vs. 11.4%; p = 0.79) between the ULMCA and non-ULMCA groups. Lesions treated with an elective 2-stent approach had higher TLR rates in the ULMCA group as compared with the non-ULMCA group (33.5% vs. 19.7%; p = 0.002).

CONCLUSIONS: The safety of ULMCA stenting relative to non-LMCA stenting was maintained through 5 years follow-up. In terms of efficacy, SES implantation in nonbifurcation ULMCA lesions was associated with an extremely low cumulative incidence of TLR, whereas the elective 2-stent approach for ULMCA bifurcation lesions was associated with a markedly higher cumulative incidence of TLR as compared with that for non-ULMCA bifurcation lesions.