Safety And Feasibility of Early DischargE - a Prospective And Randomized Trial of Low-risk Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) Patients

Patients with acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) have traditionally been hospitalized for at least 5-7 days to monitor for serious complications, including heart failure, arrhythmias, re-infarction and death. With the advent of primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) as the treatment of choice for STEMI, fewer patients are completing their infarcts and the incidence of complications is decreasing. The Zwolle Primary PCI Index is one of several externally validated risk scores that can be used to identify low-risk primary PCI patients who can safely be discharged at 48-72 hours. Recent reviews have found that a majority of primary PCI patients with risk scores that deem them "low-risk" are kept in hospital longer than predicted by these scores.

SAFE-DEPART is a trial where low-risk primary and rescue PCI patients will be randomized either to an intervention arm (early hospital discharge, early outpatient follow-up with a nurse practitioner) or to standard of care (no recommended discharge date, no outpatient follow-up with a nurse practitioner). At 6 weeks time, a blinded research assistant will contact patients and collect data on feasibility, safety, quality-of-life, and cost-effectiveness outcomes.

Inclusion criteria

• Patient with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI)
• Treatment with either primary or rescue PCI
• Zwolle risk score <= 3

Exclusion criteria

• Developed MI while in hospital for another reason
• Time from angioplasty to enrollment > 24 hours