The relationship between chronic kidney disease and “complex” percutaneous coronary intervention: Uncovering the details

Abstract

Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) have a higher incidence of cardiovascular disease than the general population. 1 In addition, these patients are at greater risk of developing complications from percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), which is most likely due to differences in hemostasis physiology, challenging coronary anatomy, and the presence of significant concurrent comorbidities.Frequency in the use of "complex" PCI-the definition of which remains to be standardized-has increased over the past decade. 2 However, it remains unclear whether the complexity of the coronary intervention has an additional effect on cardiovascular outcomes in patients when compared with standard PCI, in patients with or without CKD.In this issue of Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions, Chen et al. 3 sought to answer this question by performing a retrospective analysis using a large single-center database. They