Use of the Ostial Flash Balloon in Aorto-Ostial Chronic Total Occlusion Percutaneous Coronary Intervention

The use of the Ostial Flash balloon (Ostial Corporation) has received limited study in aorto-ostial chronic total occlusion (CTO) percutaneous coronary artery intervention (PCI). The authors evaluated the outcomes of Ostial Flash balloon use in a large CTO-PCI registry (PROGRESS-CTO, NCT02061436). The Ostial Flash balloon was used in 54 of 907 aorto-ostial CTO PCIs in 905 patients (6.0%). The mean patient age was 65.1 ± 10.7 and 80.6% were men, with a high prevalence of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, prior PCI, and prior myocardial infarction. The mean occlusion length was 40.5 ± 25.1 mm, 52.2% had moderate to severe calcification, and the mean Japanese-CTO score was 2.8 ± 1.1. Lesions treated with the Ostial Flash balloon were more frequently located in the right aorto-ostium (79.6% vs 66.0%, P = .002). In the Ostial Flash group, the most common successful CTO crossing technique was antegrade wiring (46.3%), followed by the retrograde approach (40.7%); intravascular imaging was used in 61.1% of cases. Technical success (92.6% vs 87.9%, P = .300) and the incidence of major adverse cardiac events (MACE) (5.6% vs 3.6%, P = .450) was similar in the Ostial Flash vs non-Ostial Flash patients, respectively. In multivariable analysis, PCI of proximal right coronary artery CTOs was independently associated with use of the Ostial Flash balloon (odds ratio 2.2; 95% CI, 1.1-4.8; P = .036). The Ostial Flash balloon is infrequently used in aorto-ostial CTO PCI. Although there were no differences in MACE with use of the balloon, randomized controlled trials are needed to determine its effectiveness.