Background: Recurrent restenosis following vascular brachytherapy (VBT) has been reported in up to one-third of the patients enrolled in clinical trials. The long-term outcome of repeat percutaneous intervention (PCI) after failed beta-brachytherapy is currently unknown.
Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 97 consecutive patients undergoing percutaneous coronary reintervention after failed beta-brachytherapy at our institution (80.8% of all brachytherapy failures). Long-term incidence of major adverse cardiac events (MACE, death, myocardial infarction, target lesion revascularization) was assessed.
Results: The procedure was successful in 90 patients (92.8%). A new stent was implanted in 72% of the procedures (sirolimus-eluting stent in 16.5%). After 3 years, survival was 94.3%, survival-free from myocardial infarction was 86.7% and MACE-free survival was 66.1%. No difference was observed in MACE-free survival between patients originally treated with brachytherapy for recurrent in-stent restenosis and patients receiving irradiation for de novo lesions (68.2% de novo group versus 61.2% ISR group; p=0.6 by log rank test). Overall, a second target lesion revascularization was performed in 27 patients (27.8%) after an average of 11.2 11.2 months; 21 patients (21.6%) had restenosis, and 6 (6.2%) developed late total vessel occlusion (related to acute myocardial infarction in 2 cases).
Conclusion: Repeat PCI is the most common choice after failed brachytherapy. This strategy appears to be a reasonable therapeutic option for this complex iterative pathology.