Percutaneous coronary intervention for the left main stem and other bifurcation lesions: 12th consensus document from the European Bifurcation Club

Abstract

The European Bifurcation Club (EBC) was initiated in 2004 to support a continuous overview of the field of coronary artery bifurcation interventions and aims to facilitate a scientific discussion and an exchange of ideas on the management of bifurcation disease. The EBC hosts an annual, two-day compact meeting, dedicated to bifurcations, which brings together physicians, pathologists, engineers, biologists, physicists, mathematicians, epidemiologists and statisticians for detailed discussions. Every meeting is finalised with a consensus statement that reflects the unique opportunity of combining the opinion of interventional cardiologists with the opinion of a large variety of other scientists on bifurcation management. A series of consensus sessions dedicated to specific topics, to strengthen the consensus debates and focus the discussions, was introduced at this year's meeting. The sessions comprise an intensive overview of the present literature, a pro and con debate and a voting system, to guide the consensus-building process. The present document represents the summary of the up-to-date EBC consensus and recommendations from the 12th annual EBC meeting in 2016 in Rotterdam.