T reatment of bifurcation coronary lesions remains a difficult area, in which best practice is yet to be fully established. Randomized trials of all-comer bifurcation lesions have demonstrated that there is no advantage to systematic dual drugeluting stent strategies. However, these trials included a high proportion of patients with no disease in the side branch (SB) or relatively small SB vessels.
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See Editorial by De LucaExpert consensus suggests that large caliber bifurcation lesions with significant ostial SB disease probably warrant an upfront 2-stent strategy, but this consensus has not been tested.11 This trial was designed to assess the hypothesis that large true bifurcations with significant SB ostial disease are Background-For the treatment of coronary bifurcation lesions, a provisional strategy is superior to systematic 2-stent techniques for the most bifurcation lesions. However, complex anatomies with large side branches (SBs) with significant ostial disease length are considered by expert consensus to warrant a 2-stent technique upfront. This consensus view has not been scientifically assessed. Methods and Results-Symptomatic patients with large caliber true bifurcation lesions (SB diameter ≥2.5 mm) and significant ostial disease length (≥5 mm) were randomized to either a provisional T-stent strategy or a dual stent culotte technique. Two hundred patients aged 64±10 years, 82% male, were randomized in 20 European centers. The clinical presentations were stable coronary disease (69%) and acute coronary syndromes (31%). SB stent diameter (2.67±0.27 mm) and length (20.30±5.89 mm) confirmed the extent of SB disease. Procedural success (provisional 97%, culotte 94%) and kissing balloon inflation (provisional 95%, culotte 98%) were high. Sixteen percent of patients in the provisional group underwent T-stenting. The primary end point (a composite of death, myocardial infarction, and target vessel revascularization at 12 months) occurred in 7.7% of the provisional T-stent group versus 10.3% of the culotte group (hazard ratio, 1.02; 95% confidence interval, 0.78-1.34; P=0.53). Procedure time, x-ray dose, and cost all favored the simpler procedure. Conclusions-When treating complex coronary bifurcation lesions with large stenosed SBs, there is no difference between a provisional T-stent strategy and a systematic 2-stent culotte strategy in a composite end point of death, myocardial infarction, and target vessel revascularization at 12 months. Clinical Trial Registration-URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT 01560455.(Circ Cardiovasc Interv. 2016;9:e003643.