BALLOON ANGIOPLASTY VERSUS ROTATIONAL ANGIOPLASTY IN CHRONIC CORONARY OCCLUSIONS (THE BAROCCO STUDY)

Chronic total coronary occlusion remains one of the limitations of percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty, and few therapeutic devices are specifically designed to address this problem. Among such devices, low-speed rotational angioplasty could improve the primary success rate of the procedure but has never been studied in a controlled trial. One hundred consecutive patients with total coronary occlusion (duration 10 days to 1 year) and an indication for myocardial revascularization were randomized to either rotational or conventional angioplasty if the occlusion morphology was judged suitable for either technique. All baseline variables were evenly distributed among the 2 groups. The primary success rate in the rotational angioplasty group was 66% (33 of 50) compared with 52% (26 of 50) in the conventional angioplasty group before crossover to the rotational technique (p = NS). According to lesion morphology, the respective primary success rates were 77% (10 of 13) versus 92% (11 of 12) for tapered occlusions (p = NS), and 61% (22 of 36) versus 38% (14 of 37) for ''stump-like'' occlusions (p <0.05). After taking into account the crossovers after failed conventional angioplasty, there was no benefit in performing rotational angioplasty first versus conventional angioplasty first (primary success rates 66% vs 60%, p = NS). Thus, in chronic coronary occlusions of tapered morphology, rotational angioplasty is not superior to conventional angioplasty. In stump-like occlusions, the primary success rate is higher with the rotational angioplasty technique; however, there is no disadvantage in using rotational angioplasty as a second-line device if the conventional technique is unsuccessful.