Feasibility and safety of combined interventional procedures in elderly patients with complex cardiovascular diseases: ex-perience of a single medical center

Objectives: To report the clinical experience of combined interventional procedures in the treatment of elderly patients with coexisting two or more cardiovascular diseases in our medical center, and to assess the feasibility, safety and therapeutic efficacy of this management strategy. Methods: Patients were selected to the study if: 1) age >65 years; 2) with coexistence of two or more cardiovascular diseases which are indications for interventional therapy: 3) patients' general condition and organ functions allow the performance of combined multiple procedures; 4) the predicted procedure time is within 150 min; 5) the predicted contrast medium dosage is within 300 ml. The criteria we analyzed included procedural type, procedural time, fluoroscopy time, dosage of contrast medium, success rates of the procedures, complications and in-hospital mortality. All patients were followed up for 30.4 ± 9.3 months, to determine the all-cause mortality, recurrence rates and adverse cardiac events. Results: From January 2000 to December 2004, combined interventional procedures were performed on 136 patients, with 2 procedures on 134 patients and 3 procedures on 2 patients. The mean procedure time was 115.4 ± 11.6 min, the mean fluoroscopy time was 35.7 ± 9.3 min, and the mean dosage of contrast medium used was 183.6 ± 19.4 ml. Procedural success rate was 1009K no procedure related death or major complications occurred. Conclusion: Performed by a competent team, combined interventional procedures in elderly patients with multiple cardiovascular diseases were feasible and relatively safe.