International survey of chronic total occlusion percutaneous coronary intervention operators

Background: Contemporary chronic total occlusion (CTO) percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) practice has received limited study. Aim: To examine the contemporary CTO PCI practice. Methods: We performed an online, anonymous, international survey of CTO PCI operators. Results: Five hundred forty-five CTO PCI operators and 190 interventional cardiology fellows with an interest in CTO PCI participated in this survey. Almost half were from the United States (41%), most (93%) were men, and the median h/week spent in the hospital was 58. Median annual case numbers were 205 (150−328) for PCIs and 20 (5−50) for CTO PCIs. Almost one-fifth (17%) entered CTO cases into registries, such as PROGRESS-CTO (55%) and EuroCTO (20%). More than one-third worked at academic institutions (39%), 31% trained dedicated CTO fellows, and 22% proctored CTO PCI. One-third (34%) had dedicated CTO PCI days. Most (51%) never discharged CTO patients the same day, while 17% discharged CTO patients the same day >50% of the time. After successful guidewire crossing, 38% used intravascular imaging >90% of the time. Most used CTO scores including J-CTO (81%), PROGRESS-CTO (35%), and PROGRESS-CTO complications scores (30%). Coronary artery perforation was encountered within the last month by 19%. On a scale of 0−10, the median comfort levels in treating coronary artery perforation were: covered stents 8.8 (7.0−10), coil embolization 5.0 (2.1−8.5), and fat embolization 3.7 (0.6−7.3). Most (51%) participants had a complication cart/kit and 25% conducted regular complication drills with catheterization laboratory staff. Conclusion: Contemporary CTO PCI practices vary widely. Further research on barriers to following the guiding principles of CTO PCI may improve patient outcomes.