Reopening of Chronic Coronary Artery Occlusions by Low Speed Rotational Angioplasty

Following successful application in chronic peripheral artery occlusions, rotational angioplasty was refined and miniaturized for application in patients with chronic coronary artery occlusions. The new catheter system comprises a motor-driven rotating inner steel catheter made up of several steel coils providing maximum elasticity and complete torque control with an olive-like rounded tip (1.0–1.7 mm). The catheter has a lumen for contrast injection and a shielding plastic tube. It is introduced through a conventional 8 Fr guiding catheter. The slowly rotating (200 RPM) catheter passes nontraumatically through the occlusions, thus creating a new channel with smooth contours in a “remodeling” fashion. Once the channel (diameter 1–1.5 mm) is confirmed angiographically, balloon angioplasty is performed over an exchange wire in conventional technique. The new technique was applied to patients with chronic coronary occlusions. Reopening was first attempted with conventional guidewire technique. If the occlusion could be probed with the guidewire, patients were excluded from the study. Twenty patients in whom the occlusion could not be probed with a wire were studied: 1 ACVB, 2 LAD, and 17 RCA. Average duration of occlusion was 7.4 months; it exceeded 3 months in 15/20 and 6 months in 12/20 patients. Successful reopening was achieved in 9/20 (3 from the first 10, 6 from the second 10 patients). No vessel wall perforation or any other severe complication was encountered. Residual stenosis diameter ranged from 30%–70%. Duration of occlusion was similar among patients from the successful and unsuccessful group. It is concluded that with low speed rotational angioplasty reopening of chronic coronary artery occlusions can be achieved in a considerable part of patients in whom conventional technique is unsuccessful. (J Interven Cardiol 1989:2:3)