Rotational Atherectomy Combined with Drug Coated-Balloons for in-Stent Restenosis.

BACKGROUND: Refractory coronary in-stent restenosis remains a clinically relevant problem in interventional cardiology despite the use of drug coated balloon angioplasty and further drug eluting stent deployment. In this study, we investigated whether the novel approach of lesion debulking with rotational atherectomy prior to drug coated balloon angioplasty for challenging coronary in-stent restenosis is safe and effective.

METHODS: Procedural and registry data was retrospectively analysed for 26 patients who underwent rotational atherectomy immediately followed by drug coated balloon angioplasty to 43 coronary in-stent restenosis lesions with mean follow up of 19 months.

RESULTS: Lesion success was achieved in all cases with no major procedural complications. There were no instances of death or myocardial infarction in the follow up period. Target lesion revascularisation occurred in six patients and target vessel revascularisation occurred in eight patients. All target lesion revascularisation occurred in lesions that had already failed drug coated balloon angioplasty without debulking previously while four such lesions were free of lesion failure in the follow up period.

CONCLUSIONS: Lesion debulking with rotational atherectomy followed by drug coated balloon angioplasty is a feasible treatment option for selected cases of in-stent restenosis. Further study is needed to fully assess its efficacy in comparison to conventional treatment.