Percutaneous treatment of aorto-ostial coronary lesions: Current challenges and future directions

- Stenting of aorto-ostial coronary lesions is challenging and outcomes are inferior to non-ostial lesions.
- Angiography is a suboptimal method for guiding these procedures.
- Inaccurate stent positioning may be a major cause for suboptimal outcomes of aorto-ostial interventions.
- Several novel technologies have been designed to address these issues.

Flow-limiting aorto-ostial coronary lesions are clinically important because they subtend a large myocardial territory and may induce extensive myocardial ischemia. Diagnosis and treatment of these lesions is challenging and procedural success and clinical outcomes are inferior to non-ostial lesions. The purpose of this review is to summarize current knowledge regarding aorto-ostial percutaneous coronary intervention and to suggest novel approaches for optimizing these procedures.