Interview with Carlo Di Mario

Abstract

for the referral of patients to surgery. I remember spending hours with Patrick Serruys and Jaap Hamburger to open chronic occlu- sions using laser wires and dual injection and finishing the work with ultrasound-guided stenting, something other centers adopt- ed only 10 or 20 years after. When I was offered the opportunity to work on a larger patient group at San Raffaele, I focused on these complex cases, and my first move in London was to invite Dr Katoh, the real inventor of the retrograde approach and of many devices that have transformed and greatly facilitated the tech- nique. In 2006, when the retrograde approach was practiced by a handful of centers and the success rate was 60–70% on average with only easy occlusions approached, with Reifart, Werner, Sia- nos, Galassi, Escaned, and others, we founded the European CTO Club. Many European centers have now reached 80–90% suc- cess, and the annual congress of this group has become a must for all dedicated operators. I am very pleased to see Turkey at the forefront with Ömer Göktekin chairing the local organizing com- mittee for the next course in Istanbul, where I hope to see all the interventionalists of Turkey