SummaryIn order to compare the long-term clinical and angiographic outcomes after sirolimus-eluting stent (SES) and baremetal stent (BMS) placement in severely calcified lesions using a rotablator under the widespread indication of SES, a nonrandomized examination of 312 consecutive lesions after successful implantation of a BMS (99 lesions in 84 patients; from January 2003) or SES (213 in 167; from September 2004) using a rotablator was conducted. The lesionbased primary endpoints (cardiac death and nonfatal recurrent myocardial infarction) and the secondary endpoint [binary restenosis (BR) (diameter stenosis > 50%) at follow-up angiography] were retrospectively determined in August 2010. The incidence of primary endpoint in the SES group (2.3%; mean follow-up period of 1289 ± 526 days) was significantly lower than that in the BMS group (7.1%; P = 0.043; 1803 ± 887 days), although the several variables related to the endpoints were present in the SES group. Cox proportional hazard model analysis revealed that SES was not significantly related to a primary endpoint [hazard ratio of 0.42 (95% CI, 0.073-2.42; P = 0.33)]. The incidence of BR in the SES group (21.3%) was not significantly different from that in the BMS group (27.1%) (P = 0.33). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that SES was not a significant predictor of BR [Odds ratio of 0.78 (95% CI, 0.41-1.51; P = 0.47)]. Thus, although the results of the present retrospective nonrandomized study demonstrate the long-term safety of SES for calcified lesions using a rotablator in daily practice, SES did not show a benefit for the angiographic outcomes and is one of the complex and challenging targets of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Since calcified coronary lesions are associated with the risk of suboptimal stent expansion, calcification of coronary arteries relates to in-stent restenosis (ISR) and target lesion revascularization (TLR) 2-4) and subsequent stent thrombosis (ST) 5) after sirolimuseluting stent (SES; Cypher Bx Velocity, Cordis, Johnson & Johnson, NJ, USA) implantation. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate whether SES is consistently beneficial for the treatment of calcified lesions in daily clinical practice with a widespread indication in the field of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). However, the impacts of severely calcified lesions on the long-term clinical and angiographic outcomes after successful SES placement in daily clinical practice are still not fully understood.Rotational atherectomy (RA) using a rotablator (Boston Scientific, Natick, MA, USA) is useful for treating calcified lesions. The rotablator facilitates optimal stent implantation by debulking the hard calcified matrix and modifies vessel compliance.6) However, SES implantation with RA for a calcified coronary artery has yielded inconsistent outcomes, 7-9) despite the consistent efficacy revealed in the overall field of PCI using SES. 2,10,11) In the present study, we retrospectively examined whether SES implantation with RA improved clinical...