A primary stenting strategy as an alternative to fibrinolytic therapy in acute myocardial infarction - An analysis of results in hospital and at 6 weeks and 6 months

Objective: To report the feasibility and results to 6 months of a primary stenting strategy in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Design: Prospective, single-centre, observational study. Setting: A tertiary referral teaching hospital (Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney), July 1997 to November 1998. Subjects: 102 (of 194) consecutive patients presenting to the emergency department with AMI who were eligible for fibrinolytic therapy, and for a primary stenting strategy. The first 50 patients were under 70 years of age, and had not had previous coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). The following 52 patients included patients up to 80 years and with previous CABG. Outcome measures: Major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events: death, reinfarction, cerebrovascular accident (CVA) and repeat target lesion revascularisation, in hospital, and at 6 weeks and 6 months. Minor inhospital adverse events: bleeding requiring blood transfusion, vascular complications and new-onset heart failure. Time delays to treatment, and duration of hospital stay. Results: Normal flow was established in the infarct-related artery in 97/102 patients (95%). Stenting, percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA), CABG or medical therapy was performed in 74, 11, 9 and 8 patients, respectively. Minor inhospital events, time delays and hospital stay were similar to those reported previously. At 6 weeks, major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events had occurred in 5% of patients (four repeat target lesion revascularisation and one reinfarction). By 6 months, repeat target lesion revascularisation had been performed in an additional 10% of patients. No deaths had occurred. Conclusions: A primary stenting strategy can be performed safely, without significant delays and with excellent short and intermediate term outcomes.