ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) was made possible by the pioneering work of Andreas Gruentzig, who in 1977 performed the first coronary angioplasty. That first patient is still doing well more than 30 years later. Over that time span, however, there have been dramatic improvements in the technology available to interventional cardiologists. In addition, advances in the management of thrombotic complications, vascular recoil, acute closure, and restenosis have been dramatic. Currently, more than two million PCI procedures are performed annually, and PCI has significantly eclipsed coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) as the leading revascularization method for coronary artery disease (CAD).
