Ten-Year All-Cause Death According to Completeness of Revascularization in Patients with Three-Vessel Disease or Left Main Coronary Artery Disease: Insights from the SYNTAX Extended Survival Study.

Background: Ten-year all-cause death according to incomplete (IR) versus complete revascularization (CR) has not been fully investigated in patients with three-vessel disease (3VD) and/or left main coronary artery disease (LMCAD) undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) versus coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Methods: The SYNTAX Extended Survival Study evaluated vital status up to 10 years in patients who were originally enrolled in the SYNTAX trial. In the present sub-study, outcomes of the CABG CR group were compared with the CABG IR, PCI CR, and PCI IR groups. In addition, in the PCI cohort, the residual SYNTAX score (rSS) was used to quantify the extent of IR and to assess its association with fatal late outcome. The rSS of 0 suggests CR, whereas a rSS>0 identifies degree of IR. Results: IR was more frequently observed in patients with PCI vs. CABG (56.6% vs. 36.8%) and more common in those with 3VD than LMCAD in both PCI (58.5% vs. 53.8%) and CABG arm (42.8% vs. 27.5%). Patients undergoing PCI with CR had no significant difference in 10-year all-cause death compared with those undergoing CABG (22.2% for PCI with CR vs. 24.3% for CABG with IR vs. 23.8% for CABG with CR). In contrast, those with PCI and IR had a significantly higher risk of all-cause death at 10 years compared with CABG and CR (33.5% vs. 23.7%; adjusted hazard ratio [aHR]:1.48; 95% confidence interval [CI]:1.15-1.91). When patients with PCI were stratified according to the rSS, those with a rSS≤8 had no significant difference in all-cause death at 10 years as the other terciles (22.2% for rSS=0 vs. 23.9% for rSS>0-4 vs. 28.9% for rSS>4-8), whereas a rSS> 8 had a significantly higher risk of 10-year all-cause death as compared with those undergoing PCI with CR (50.1% vs. 22.2%; aHR:3.40; 95% CI:2.13-5.43). Conclusions: IR is common after PCI, and the degree of incompleteness was associated with 10-year mortality. If it is unlikely that complete (or nearly complete; rSS<8) revascularization can be achieved with PCI in patients with 3VD, CABG should be considered. Clinical Trial Registration: SYNTAX: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov Unique Identifier: NCT00114972. SYNTAX Extended Survival: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov Unique Identifier: NCT03417050.