Incidence, management, and outcome of coronary artery perforation during percutaneous coronary intervention

We have analyzed the incidence, management, and outcome of 84 cases of coro nary artery perforation in patients who underwent percutaneous corollary in tervention at our institution. This complication was more frequent in femal e patients and in patients who underwent lesion modification with atheroabl ative devices. A total of 8 patients (9.5%) died after the procedure. They were usually older and had a higher incidence of cardiac tamponade; a large r percentage of these patients underwent emergency surgery than those who s urvived.