Implementing Consultant Recommendations in Percutaneous Coronary Interventions: Look before you Leap

Purpose To determine if hospital consultant recommendations were clinically applicable to the cardiac catheterization laboratory and to compare medication usage in percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) to those goals. Methods The medical records of 96 adults on whom PCI had been performed over a 6-month period were reviewed retrospectively. Only PCIs that included intracoronary stent placement were considered. The primary end point was to determine if abciximab usage was 15% or less in all PCI cases. Secondary end points evaluated the use of abciximab, eptifibatide, and bivalirudin based on the acuity of the clinical syndrome. Results Abciximab, eptifibatide, and bivalirudin monotherapy were used in 16.7%, 40.6%, and 42.7% of all cases, respectively. The total consumption of abciximab exceeded the primary end point by 1.7%. Eptifibatide usage was 71% of all glycoprotein (GP) IIb/IIIa inhibitors, less than the 85% target proposed by the hospital consultants. Bivalirudin monotherapy surpassed eptifibatide as the antithrombotic of choice across all PCI cases. The use of provisional GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors in conjunction with bivalirudin was 8.3%, more than the 5% target specified by the consultants. Emergent PCIs comprised 41% of all cases sampled. Conclusion This 6-month retrospective survey demonstrated that the use of abciximab exceeded the percentage recommended by consultants. However, given the large percentage of emergent PCIs during the time period and the literature supporting the use of abciximab in emergent PCIs, a change in GP IIb/IIIa inhibitor usage patterns was not considered necessary.