乌鸦传媒

ORLANDO -- Robots can successfully perform percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in both simple and complex coronary lesions, the CORA-PCI study suggested.

Technical success during PCI with the CorPath robot, which remotely controls coronary guidewires and stents, reached 91.7% with a single operator. Additionally, more than 90% of patients receiving robotically-assisted PCI did so with minimal manual assistance, according to, of University of California San Diego School of Medicine, and colleagues.

Rates of clinical success were similar between robot- and human-conducted PCI (99.1% versus 99.6%, P=0.64), they reported at the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) meeting.

What's more, there was no uptick in radiation exposure (fluoroscopy time 18.2 minutes versus 19.2 minutes, P=0.42) or stent deployment (1.59 stents versus 1.54 stents, P=0.58) in the robot-assisted cohort.

Even so, procedures took longer in this group: 44 minutes 30 seconds versus 36 minutes 34 seconds for recipients of manual PCI (P=0.005), and neither multivariable adjustment nor propensity score matching eliminated that disadvantage.

"For the first time, we've shown nearly identical outcomes with a group of very complex patients," Mahmud nevertheless told SCAI attendees. He also suggested that the data show that robotics can be a viable alternative to manual PCI.

The CORA-PCI analysis included 315 patients for a total of 334 PCI procedures over 18 months. Patients undergoing atherectomies and two-stent strategies for bifurcation lesions were excluded, as were those with chronic total occlusions.

Approximately 80% of lesions treated were complex, according to Mahmud's group.

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