Percutaneous coronary intervention with the staged mini culotte technique for ostial restenosis of the large side branch

Understanding the anatomy and physiology of a bifurcation is crucial in today’s interventional field. The bifurcation lesion is one of the most challenging coronary conditions to treat percutaneously. Numerous interventional strategies have been investigated because of the high level of interest in these lesions, but the relatively poor procedural and long-term results. Improvements in stenting and other interventional procedures have reduced the likelihood of adverse clinical outcomes, by creating the most favorable environment for stents to do their work. Provisional stenting has been widely accepted as the initial interventional technique for coronary bifurcation lesions by the medical community for over 15 years. Restenosis of a major branch is possible after angioplasty of the main vessel using a provisional one-stent approach. Although side branch restenosis following bifurcation angioplasty is less common with modern bifurcation procedures, it still occurs in 5% of cases during angiographic follow-up for symptoms. In our case series of five patients, severe side-branch restenosis presented with recuring anginal symptoms, which required target vessel revascularization. By applying bifurcation principles, we improved the “staged mini culotte” part of the culotte bifurcation stent technique, making it more user-friendly, and reducing exposure to radiation and operating time.