Immediate Versus Staged Multivessel PCI Strategies in Patients with ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction and Multivessel Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Recent guidelines and randomized clinical trials favor the multivessel percutaneous coronary intervention (MV-PCI) strategy undertaken immediately or staged after primary PCI in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and multivessel disease. However, the optimal strategy of MV-PCI remains unknown.We conducted a search of PUBMED, EMBASE, Web of Science, the Cochrane database (CENTRAL), clinicaltrial.gov, and Google Scholar for studies comparing immediate versus staged MV-PCI in patients with STEMI and multivessel disease. Pooled odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated using random-effects models.Eighteen (4 randomized clinical trials) studies with 8100 patients fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Relative to staged MV-PCI, immediate MV-PCI was associated with higher short-term (within 30 days) (OR, 3.96; 95% CI, 2.07-7.59; P < 0.0001) and long-term (above 6 months) mortality (OR, 2.12; 95% CI, 1.46-3.07; P < 0.0001), short-term major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE)(OR, 1.99; 95% CI, 1.13-3.50; P = 0.02) and cardiac death (OR, 4.78; 95% CI, 2.17-10.53; P = 0.0001). There was a nonsignificant trend towards higher long-term MACE (OR, 1.23; 95% CI, 0.98-1.54; P = 0.07) and cardiac death (OR, 1.75; 95% CI, 0.93-3.30; P = 0.08) with immediate versus staged MV-PCI. Revascularization, myocardial infarction, and safety endpoints including stroke, major bleeding, and renal failure were similar between immediate versus staged MV-PCI. However, pooled analysis of randomized clinical trials did not show any significant differences in long-term MACE, all-cause mortality, myocardial infarction, and revascularization.Our meta-analysis suggests that among patients with STEMI and multivessel disease, staged instead of immediate MV-PCI may be the optimal revascularization strategy.