Chronic Total Occlusion Intervention

Our Institute has an organized program to identify and open coronary artery chronic total occlusions (CTO). A CTO is a complete blockage of a coronary artery that has been in place for 30 or days or longer.

How Chronic Total Occlusion Intervention Works

Our interventional cardiologists use a balloon catheter to gain access to the blocked vessel and a laser to vaporize the occlusion. This procedure, offered at TriHealth’s Bethesda North Hospital, gives hope to patients who cannot find relief from other medical modalities, alleviates heart failure symptoms and may improve survival rates. It can be performed on any coronary artery, although the right coronary is the most common. We perform 150 cases each year with an 87 percent success rate in opening totally blocked arteries.