CTO (Chronic Total Occlusion) Treatment

In normal blockages, there is a canal, albeit narrow, inside the vessel through which the wire can pass. In CTO, the inside of the vessel is walled with calcification like concrete. To overcome this wall, wires with special drill-like tips that are much harder are used, or the blockage is bypassed by navigating between the inner and outer lining of the vessel (subintimal approach) or by coming backwards from the branches of the other healthy vessel (retrograde approach).

These procedures take much longer than a normal angio (2 to 4 hours) and depend on the operator's advanced experience in this matter. In experienced centers, the success rate of opening CTO vessels has reached 85-90%.