Intracoronary irradiation and stent placement in a chronic total coronary occlusion: long-term clinical, angiographic, and intracoronary ultrasound follow-up

[Intracoronary brachytherapy: a meta-analysis]

Intracoronary brachytherapy aims at a reduction of in-stent restenosis by lessening neo-intimal proliferation. To assess its clinical potential, a systematic review of the literature indexed in the standard biomedical bibliographic databases selected eight prospective randomized clinical trials; seven of them, comparing coronary brachytherapy and non-treatment or placebo, have been included in the present meta-analysis. This analysis confirms the angiographic benefit of this procedure, as reported in the individual studies; it also shows, however an excess of clinical adverse effects not exhibited by any individual trial. Therefore, intracoronary brachytherapy cannot be recommended as routine practice, while one cannot rule out its interest in special situations.