NEW YORK, NY (Oct. 31) -- A major international study has found that drug-eluting stents, a less-invasive alternative to bypass surgery, are as effective as surgery for many patients with a blockage in the left main coronary artery.

Findings from the EXCEL (Evaluation of XIENCE versus Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery for Effectiveness of Left Main Revascularization) trial were published this morning online in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics conference in Washington, DC. The trial research team included interventional cardiologists and cardiac surgeons from 126 centers in 17 countries.

Coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery has long been considered the definitive treatment for patients with left main coronary artery disease (LMCAD), in which the artery that supplies oxygen-rich blood to most of the heart muscle is clogged with atherosclerotic plaque. About two-thirds of all LMCAD patients have mild to moderate disease in the remainder of the coronary arteries.
"Our study has shown that many patients with left main coronary artery disease who prefer a minimally invasive approach can now rest assured that a stent is as effective as bypass surgery for at least 3 years, and is initially safer, with fewer complications from the procedure," said first author Gregg W. Stone, MD, professor of medicine at Columbia University Medical Center and director of cardiovascular research and education at the Center for Interventional Vascular Therapy at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia.

Stents, which are placed into the diseased artery via a catheter that is inserted through a small opening in a blood vessel in the groin, arm, or neck, are a less-invasive treatment option for many people with coronary artery disease. However, coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG) has long been considered the definitive treatment for patients with LMCAD, which affects a large portion of the heart muscle. Previously, randomized clinical trials suggested that first-generation drug-eluting stents, which release antiproliferative medications to prevent the artery from becoming re-occluded after stent placement, might be appropriate for patients with LMCAD without extensive blockages in the remainder of the heart arteries. The trial results, however, were inconclusive. "Since that time, stents have gotten better, and so has cardiac bypass surgery," said Dr. Stone. "That required us to take a fresh look at the relative safety and effectiveness of the two approaches."

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