In the current era, coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is being increasingly performed using total arterial revascularization or a hybrid procedure of stenting of non-LAD disease and minimal access left internal mammary artery (LIMA) to LAD grafts, in order to minimize the need for vein grafts. Still, we encounter saphenous vein graft (SVG) disease, and it might require PCI, which often presents with unique challenges. The current favored strategy is to attempt PCI of the native coronary, if feasible, especially in long degenerated SVG disease, as it has shown better short- and long-term outcome. PCI is preferred over repeat CABG for early recurrent symptoms after CABG in patent LIMA graft and amenable anatomy patients. Balloon predilatation is not recommended unless delivery of an EPD or stent is not possible. Distal protection should be considered the standard of care for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in most patients with older vein grafts, as periprocedural myocardial infarction and no reflow are the Achilles heel of SVG PCI. Intragraft vasodilators should be used liberally, even before balloon angioplasty/stenting. Avoid postdilatation, and usage of undersized but a longer stent length to reduce plaque extrusion through stent struts is preferred. Consider thrombectomy in lesions with a heavy thrombus burden. Keep activated clotting time on the higher side than in conventional PCI. Prolonged dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) based on the DAPT score is recommended. With all the precautions and care, we still need a fair wind in our favor to sail through the vein grafts disease.

Women are under-represented among transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) and transcatheter mitral valve repair (TMVr) operators. This review assesses the representation of women as patients and as proceduralists and trial authors in major structural interventions. Women are under-represented as proceduralists in structural interventions: only 2% of TAVR operators and 1% of TMVr operators are women. Only 1.5% of authors in landmark clinical TAVR and TMVr trials are interventional cardiologists who are women (4/260). Significant under-representation and under-enrolment of women in landmark TAVR trials is evident: the calculated participation-to-prevalence ratio (PPR) is 0.73, and in TMVr trials, the PPR is 0.69. Under-representation of women is also evident in registry data (PPR = 0.84 for TAVR registries and for TMVr registries). In structural interventional cardiology, women are under-represented as proceduralists, trial participants and patients. This under-representation has the potential to affect the recruitment of women to randomised trials, subsequent guideline recommendations, selection for treatment, patient outcomes and sex-specific data analysis.

Several studies have examined the efficacy of drug-eluting stents in acute and chronic coronary syndromes and demonstrated benefit in both men and women. However, the effect of gender on percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) outcomes in more complex disease including bifurcation disease is less well-known. In particular, a two-stent or provisional strategy, for both left Main and non-Left Main bifurcation lesions, has been variable across the different studies. In addition, there is a notable geographic preference whereby a stepwise provisional strategy with culotte as a bailout technique is preferred in Europe while in Asia there is a predilection to DK Crush for a 2-stent strategy. Many of these trials, however, are underpowered to conduct subgroup analysis for outcomes in women. To date, the evidence suggests women have better outcomes with coronary artery bypass grafting in complex disease. The higher events in women undergoing PCI are largely driven by bleeding. Studies dedicated to evaluating outcomes after complex revascularization in women are desperately needed with long-term follow-up. This review examines the current landmark trials as they pertain to outcomes in women.

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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, transform, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.