Estimating the risk of percutaneous coronary intervention

Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is expanding in terms of both the numbers of patients treated and the scope and severity of coronary artery disease tackled. These developments have occurred in parallel with increased awareness of the importance of accountability and clinical governance. Whilst cardiac surgeons have durable risk scores such as Parsonnet and EuroSCORE to assist them and their patients with estimating procedure-related risks, interventionists lack such universally accepted tools. Or do they? In this paper, we review the available PCI risk scores and point out the pressing need for the systematic use of a robust, simple and widely acceptable risk score for routine clinical use.