Background: Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) followed by transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is an alternative to surgery in patients with severe aortic stenosis (AS) and coronary artery disease (CAD). In many, the coronary arteries are severely calcified and best treated with rotational atherectomy (RA). However, RA is not routinely performed in severe AS patients due to safety concerns. There is a paucity of data on the safety of RA in severe AS patients with calcific CAD.
Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the medical records of 29 patients with severe AS who underwent elective RA-facilitated PCI at our center between January 1, 2011 and December 31, 2015.
Results: Twenty-nine patients (mean age, 79.8 ± 8.8 years) were enrolled. Mean aortic valve area was 0.71 ± 0.20 cm², mean aortic valve gradient was 40.32 ± 9.88 mm Hg. All PCIs were successful (mean diameter stenosis, 86.3 ± 7.6%; mean burr size, 1.62 ± 0.19 mm). Nineteen patients (65.5%) required temporary pacemaker. Eight patients (27.6%) required vasopressors during PCI. There was a significant reduction in systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), mean arterial pressure (MAP), and heart rate (HR) during RA, but without clinical events. No procedure was aborted and there were no deaths or clinical myocardial infarctions.
Conclusion: RA-facilitated PCI can be safely performed in elderly patients with severe AS and severely calcified CAD with low risk of complications. There was a significant but transient drop in SBP, DBP, MAP, and HR during RA. However, this was not associated with clinically significant adverse events.