Safety and effectiveness of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in elderly patients. A 5-year consecutive study of 201 cases with PCI

The study objectives were to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of PCI in the elderly. The 201 cases with PCI were divided into the younger group (<60-year-old group, 33 cases), the old group (60- to 74-year-old group, 92 cases) and the very old group (75- to 89-year-old group, 76 cases). We found that the incidence of 2-vessel disease, multi-vessel disease and complex lesions in the old and very old group was more frequent than that in the younger group (p < 0.05, p < 0.05, p < 0.05). From the younger group to the very old group, the Gensini score increases significantly (40.50 vs. 42.00 vs. 45.25, p < 0.05, p < 0.01, p < 0.01). The immediate success rate of PCI was 99.01% (199/201), and no significant difference was found in the three age groups. The complete revascularization in the very old group was much less than that in the old and younger groups. Logistic regression showed that only the incomplete revascularization was the independent risk factor of adverse events (odds ratio (OR) = 2.14, 95% confidence interval (95%CI) = 1.37-5.72). We conclude that in the elderly patients with favorable tolerance of PCI, PCI immediate success rate was similar to that of the young patients, suggesting that complete revascularization of the very old patients might improve the prognosis and reduce the incidence of cardiac events.