Elective Wiktor GX stenting for symptomatic stenosis in old aortocoronary saphenous vein bypass grafts: the Antwerp experience
Van Langenhove, G.; Vermeersch, P.; Kay, I.P.; Vaerenberg, M.; Heuten, H.; Stockman, D.; Convens, C.; Albertal, M.; Vrints, C.; Van den Branden, F.; Van den Heuvel, P.
Journal of Invasive Cardiology 11(5): 274-280
1999
ISSN/ISBN: 1042-3931 PMID: 10745530 Document Number: 506428
We compared initial outcome, peri-procedural complications and long-term clinical follow-up of elective Wiktor GX stent implantation in severely narrowed vein grafts to a historic register of elective angioplasties in saphenous vein grafts in the same center. Eighty-one consecutive patients with angina and a history of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), all received elective angioplasty (PTCA) of the diseased graft; we described them as group P. The next 38 consecutive patients were treated with elective angioplasty and Wiktor Stent implantation, followed by one month ticlopidine; they were called group S. This retrospective study suggests that elective Wiktor stenting in old saphenous vein graft stenosis, in combination with one month ticlopidine, leads to: 1) a better angiographic result, with reduction of peri-procedural complications; and 2) a lower incidence of recurrent angina, need for invasive or surgical re-intervention, myocardial infarction and death during follow-up.