Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in the non-protected left main coronary artery (LM) was until recently considered a harmful practice for individuals eligible for coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), a gold standard in the treatment of this disease. This concept was based on the high rates of major adverse cardiac events in patients treated with balloon angioplasty and later on, in patients treated with bare-metal stents. More recently, the introduction of drug-eluting stents in our daily clinical practice promoted marked reductions in the rates of restenosis and major adverse cardiac events in patients treated by PCI. The good results obtained led to a review of the PCI guidelines, which now consider this treatment as a feasible option, classifying the level of indication according to clinical complexity as well as the coronary anatomy to be approached. However, despite this significant advance, it is important to highlight some aspects: treatment of the distal bifurcation is associated to a worse prognosis than ostial or midshaft lesions and the best approach in this situation seems to be the T-provisional technique. So far, substantial differences have not been established for different drug-eluting stents and intravascular imaging techniques should be strongly encouraged to guide their implant. Finally, patient assessment and selection for the procedure should be guided by scores based on clinical and angiographic characteristics.
Angioplasty, transluminal, percutaneous coronary; Drug-eluting stents; Coronary vessels
