RESCUE PERCUTANEOUS TRANSLUMINAL CORONARY ANGIOPLASTY

Fibrinolytic therapy for acute myocardial infarction, even with the mo st efficient regimens available, is fraught with a substantial proport ion of failures to reopen the occluded vessel. The term rescue percuta neous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) has been introduced to describe an attempt to mechanically recanalize the infarct vessel if f ibrinolytic reperfusion fails. Despite the intuitive appeal and widesp read use of rescue PTCA, only a limited amount of data (mostly observa tional retrospective data) is available to confirm the clinical benefi t of this therapeutic option.