Additional manual thrombus aspiration for ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction during percutaneous coronary intervention: an updated meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: The clinical efficacy and safety of adjunctive thrombus aspiration (TA) in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) remain controversial. METHODS: Twenty five eligible randomized controlled trials were included to compare the use of thrombus aspiration (TA) with PCI and PCI-only for STEMI. The primary endpoint was all-cause mortality and death. The secondary endpoints were major adverse cardiac events (MACE), recurrent infarction (RI), target vessel revascularization (TVR), stent thrombosis (ST), perfusion surrogate markers and stroke. RESULTS: TIMI flow grade 3 and MBG 2–3 were significantly increased in the TA plus PCI arm compared with the PCI-only arm [relative risk (RR): 1.05, 95% confidence intervals (CI): 1.02–1.09, P = 0.004] and (RR: 1.68, 95% CI: 1.40–2.00, P < 0.001), respectively. There were no significant differences in all-cause mortality, MACEs, TVR and ST rates between the two groups. The RI rate was lower in the TA plus PCI arm than that in the PCI-only arm with short-term follow-up duration (RR: 0.60, 95% CI: 0.38–0.96, P = 0.03), but there was no significant difference in RI incidence over the medium- or long-term follow-up periods (RR: 1.00, 95% CI: 0.77–1.29, P = 0.98), and (RR: 0.96, 95% CI: 0.81–1.15, P = 0.69), respectively. There were statistically significant differences in the rates of crude stroke and stroke over the medium- or long-term follow-up periods and the crude stroke rate in the TA plus PCI (RR: 1.60, 95% CI: 1.08–2.38, P = 0.02) and (RR: 1.43, 95% CI: 1.03–1.98, P = 0.03), respectively; this was not observed between the two arms during the short-term follow-up period (RR: 1.47, 95% CI: 0.97–2.21, P = 0.07). CONCLUSIONS: Routine TA-assisted PCI in STEMI patients can improve myocardial reperfusion and get limited benefits related to the clinical endpoints, which may be associated with stroke risk.