A New Approach to Percutaneously Treat Chronic Coronary Total Occlusions: The ‘Minimalistic Hybrid Approach’ Algorithm

Vascular access-related complications are one of the most frequent issues following percutaneous interventions of chronic total occlusions (CTO) because of the traditional use of large introducer sheaths for more back-up catheter support, and the need for multiple access sites, often including femoral access. In current practice, many operators still approach the revascularisation of CTO through femoral access despite the demonstrated advantage of radial procedures, mostly in terms of incidence of bleeding complications. Recently, an alternative strategy to deal with CTO, with the aim to minimise the number of access-related complications without affecting the successful revascularisation rate, has been proposed: the ‘minimalistic hybrid approach’ algorithm. This approach consists of the use of classic ‘hybrid algorithm’ techniques, but also aims to minimise the number of access sites, the size of the catheters used, and the adoption of the femoral access.