Background and aim: The long-term benefit of percutaneous recanalisation of chronic total occlusion (CTO) is still unclear. Given advances in interventional cardiology over the last two decades, we sought to investigate whether a successful percutaneous coronary intervention for CTO (PCI-CTO) improves outcomes in an age- and gender-matched single-centre cohort of stable angina patients.

Methods: Out of 401 consecutive patients enrolled to the CTO-Registry database, 276 patients were included in the final analysis. Patients with unsuccessful PCI-CTO (n = 138) were age- and gender-matched in a 1:1 ratio with patients who underwent a successful procedure. The primary end-points included hard end-points comprising death and nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI) and a composite safety outcome measure of death, nonfatal MI and ischaemia-driven revascularisation. The secondary end-point was improvement in angina status or complete resolution of angina symptoms. Patients were followed up for six months and at two years.

Results: Patients who underwent a successful recanalisation of CTO, compared to those who underwent an unsuccessful procedure, revealed similar rates of composite death and MI at six months (0.7% vs. 1.4%; hazard ratio [HR], 0.50; 95% confidence interval ratio [CI], 0.05–4.80; p = 0.56) and two years (1.4% vs. 5.8%; HR 0.24; 95% CI 0.07–0.85; p = 0.053). A significant difference in composite safety end-points between subsets, although not recorded after six months of observation (8.7% vs. 15.2%; HR 0.54; 95% CI 0.27–1.07; p = 0.095), was noted at two years follow-up (15.2% vs. 29.7%; HR 0.47; 95% CI 0.29–0.77; p = 0.004). A greater improvement in symptom burden or resolution of angina symptoms was documented after a successful PCI at both six months (68.1% vs. 23.2%, p < 0.001; 80.4% vs. 34.8%, p < 0.001, respectively) and two years (52.2% and 8.0%, p < 0.001; 68.1% vs. 22.5%, p < 0.001, respectively).

Conclusions: Successful recanalisation of CTO improves outcomes in long-term observation.