Outcomes after percutaneous coronary intervention or coronary artery bypass grafting in patient with left main coronary artery disease: the TOkai LEft main RevAscularizatioN sTrategy (TOLERANT) study

The outcome of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) compared to coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is still controversial for patients with left main coronary artery (LMCA) disease. This multicenter cohort study aimed to evaluate the clinical outcomes of LMCA disease patients who underwent PCI or CABG. We reviewed 875 consecutive patients diagnosed with LMCA disease between January 2009 and December 2020 who underwent coronary revascularization by PCI (n = 404) or CABG (n = 471). A one-to-one propensity score matching was employed to control the potential biases. The primary outcome was any major adverse cardiac events (MACE), which were composed of all causes of death, myocardial infarction, or stroke. Before propensity score matching, both groups significantly differed in essential baseline characteristics. Patients undergoing PCI were significantly older (age 72.4 vs. 70.5 years). They had a better baseline left ventricular function (left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) 59.1% vs. 55.8%). Moreover, patients in the PCI group had less coronary artery disease burden, such as less frequency of SYNTAX scores ≥ 33 (25.1% vs. 49.0%) and true left main bifurcation disease (18.6% vs. 33.1%). After propensity score analysis, 191 pairs of patients were successfully matched, and the median follow-up time was 4.5 years. A primary outcome event occurred in 8.9% of the patients in the PCI group and 15.2% in the CABG group (HR 0.70; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.38–1.28; P = 0.253). All causes of death were lower in the PCI group than in the CABG group (8.4% vs. 13.6%; P = 0.347), but the difference was insignificant. In PCI and CABG groups, the incidence of cardiovascular death (1.6% vs. 1.1%), myocardial infarction (1.1% vs. 1.1%), and stroke (0% vs. 1.6%) were also not significantly different. However, the incidence of any revascularization and hospitalization for heart failure tended to be higher in the PCI group than in the CABG group, but the difference was not significant. In this propensity-matched study, PCI showed a statistically insignificant difference in all causes of death, myocardial infarction, or stroke compared with CABG for the treatment of LMCA disease. Furthermore, PCI showed no statistically significant difference compared to CABG in overall endpoints, including any revascularization.