1.1
Use intravascular lithotripsy as an option to treat calcified coronary arteries during percutaneous coronary intervention with standard arrangements in place for clinical governance, consent and audit.
1 Recommendations
1.2
Clinicians should enter details about everyone having the procedure onto the National Institute for Cardiovascular Outcomes Research (NICOR) database and review local clinical outcomes.
Why the committee made these recommendations
There is good-quality evidence that this procedure is effective and safe. The evidence shows that calcification is reduced and blood vessel diameter is increased after this procedure, meaning a stent can be more easily inserted. People having this procedure already have a high risk of cardiovascular complications, but there is no evidence that intravascular lithotripsy increases this risk. This procedure is widely used and established in clinical practice.