The Use and Clinical Outcomes of Single-Burr Rotational Atherectomy: The Experience of a Local Hospital in Taiwan

Background: Treating heavily calcified lesions is a challenge and is associated with high re-stenosis and target lesion revascularization (TLR). Before stent implantation, lesions must be adequately prepared using rotational atherectomy (RA), which has shown favorable results. The study aims to report our hospital’s clinical outcomes when using rotational atherectomy on complex and heavily calcified coronary lesions with a single-burr strategy. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 58 patients who underwent percutaneous coronary interventions with RA at our center between December 2006 and April 2017. Data on immediate post-procedural events and major adverse cardiovascular events were collected during follow-up, including cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, TLR, target vessel revascularization (TVR) and stroke. Results: Of the 58 patients and 90 lesions treated over 10 years, 88 lesions (97.8%) used only one burr. The intervention procedure success rate was 100%. During a mean follow-up of 41.2 months, 6 patients experienced acute coronary syndrome, 12 required TLR, 2 needed TVR, and 6 died due to a cardiovascular event. We divided lesions into 5 categories. The prevalence of lesions and the burr size most commonly used were: category 1 (ostial lesion, 8.9%, 1.75mm), category 2 (focal lesion, 20%, 1.75 mm), category 3 (intermediate lesion, 13.3%, 1.5mm), category 4a (long, looser lesion, 26.7%, 1.5 mm), and category 4b (long, rigid lesion, 31.1%, 1.25 mm). Conclusions: Rather than a routine step-by-step strategy for RA, this study shows convincing evidence supporting the use of this device to treat complex calcified coronary lesions using a single-burr strategy.