Complete revascularization in patients with acute myocardial infarction and multivessel disease: Pooled analysis of Kaplan-Meier-derived individual-patient-data.

Complete revascularization in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and multivessel disease reduces major adverse cardiac events (MACE) compared with incomplete revascularization, although whether survival is improved is uncertain. For this systematic review and meta-analysis, all randomized trials of complete vs incomplete revascularization in patients with acute MI without cardiogenic shock were identified from PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library databases from inception to December 31, 2024. The primary and major secondary endpoints were MACE and all-cause mortality derived from reconstructed time-to-event individual-patient-data from published Kaplan-Meier curves. Additional outcomes included cardiovascular mortality, MI, and unplanned repeat revascularizations. Outcomes were expressed as hazard ratios with 95% confidence intervals. This study was registered with the PROSPERO (number, CRD42023415428). A total of 9 randomized trials with 9,658 patients (86.8% with STEMI) were identified among whom 4,671 (48.4%) patients had complete revascularization. Patients with complete revascularization had a lower 5-year risk of MACE (HR: 0.59, 95% CI: 0.54 to 0.66, P < .001) compared with incomplete revascularization. Complete revascularization was also associated with lower 5-year risks of all-cause mortality (HR: 0.64, 95% CI: 0.56 to 0.72, P < .001), cardiovascular mortality (HR: 0.82, 95% CI: 0.71 to 0.95, P = .008), MI (HR: 0.69, 95% CI: 0.55 to 0.87, P < .001), and unplanned repeat revascularizations (HR: 0.62, 95% CI: 0.54 to 0.71, P < .001). Complete revascularization results in lower risks of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, MI, unplanned repeat revascularizations and MACE in patients with acute MI and multivessel disease. These results support current guidelines recommending CR in hemodynamically stable patients with STEMI, emphasizing that this approach may improve survival.