Intermediate and Late Outcomes With PCI vs CABG for Left Main Disease — Landmark Meta-Analysis of Randomized Trials

Abstract

PCI to improve survival is currently recommended as a reasonable alternative to CABG in patients with unprotected left main disease. However, RCTs to support this recommendation has generated mixed results and recently published EXCEL trial has sparked debate about differences in late mortality. To address this point, we performed landmark meta-analysis of 4 RCTs with 5 year follow up data — EXCEL, NOBLE, PRECOMBAT and SYNTAX LEFT MAIN. Overall, there was no significant difference in all-cause mortality between PCI and CABG at 5 years (RR = 1.03 [95% CI = 0.79–1.33]). However, there was apparent change in the direction of association before and after the 1 year landmark that underscores the need for long term follow up in these trials. In addition, we found that PCI was associated with significantly lower rate of intermediate stroke at 1 year (RR = 0.44 [0.24–0.82]) but higher rate of late MI after 1 year (3.31 [2.11–5.18]) compared to CABG.