Five-year outcomes in patients with multivessel coronary artery disease undergoing surgery or percutaneous intervention

The outcomes from real-life clinical studies regarding the optimal revascularization strategy in patients with multivessel coronary artery disease (MVD) are still poorly investigated. In this retrospective study we assessed 5-year outcomes: primary, secondary endpoints and quality of life of 1035 individuals with severe coronary artery disease (CAD) treated either with coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG)—356 patients or percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI)—679 patients according to the recommendation of a local Heart Team (HT). At 5 years no significant difference in overall mortality and rates of myocardial infarctions (MI) were observed between CABG and PCI cohorts (11.0% vs. 13.4% for PCI, P = 0.27 and 9.6% vs. 12.8% for PCI, P = 0.12, respectively). The incidence of major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events (MACCE), mainly driven by increased rates of repeat revascularization (RR) were higher in PCI-cohort than in CABG-group (56.1% vs. 40.4%, P < 0.01 and 26.8% vs. 12.6%, P < 0.01, respectively), while CABG-patients experienced stroke more often (7.3% vs. 3.1% for PCI, P < 0.01). In real-life practice with long-term follow-up, none of the two revascularization modalities implemented following HT decisions showed overwhelming superiority: occurrence of death and MI were similar, rates of RR favoured CABG, while incidence of strokes advocated PCI.