Pathology of coronary chronic total occlusion

There is an increasing need for percutaneous revascularization procedures of coronary Chronic Total Occlusion (CTO), because many patients with severe coronary artery disease have limited options for revascularization. Although the success rate of percutaneous revascularization of CTOs was unsatisfactory from the 1990s to the 2000s, recent technological advances in interventional strategies have improved the success rate to 85%. Detailed histological assessment of human autopsy studies of CTO has contributed significantly to the refinement in Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) techniques and device development. We have recently reported the pathological findings and characteristics of CTOs that occur in different clinical scenarios. In this review, we discuss the pathology of CTOs to facilitate greater understanding of revascularization strategies for CTOs.