A Prospective, Multi-Center, Randomised Controlled Trial for Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the Blimp Scoring Balloon in Lesions Not Crossable with a Conventional Balloon or Microcatheter: the BLIMP Study

Background Balloon uncrossable coronary lesions are lesions that cannot be crossed with a conventional balloon. Multiple balloons have been designed to overcome this problem. The Blimp balloon has a very low scoring profile (0.6 mm) with a very high rated burst pressure (30 atmospheres). We aimed to evaluate the efficacy of this balloon compared to customary low-profile balloons. Methods We conducted a multicenter, prospective, randomised, controlled trial in which 126 patients with an uncrossable lesion were randomly (1:1 randomization) assigned to treatment first with the Blimp balloon or low-profile balloon. The primary endpoint was the success of crossing the lesion after initial failure with a microcatheter (group A) or with a conventional balloon (group B). Results Overall, the first attempt of Blimp was successful in 29 out of 61 cases (48%) while the LP balloon immediately crossed in 30 out 67 cases (45%; p = 0.761). Using a low-profile balloon in the BLIMP group after failure of the Blimp balloon increased the success to 64% (39 out of 61 cases). Using the Blimp balloon in the low-profile first group after failure of the low-profile balloon increased the success to 60% (40 out of 67 cases). After the placement of a guide catheter extension, the overall successful lesion crossing in the BLIMP group was 80% (49 out of 61 cases) compared to 76% (51 out of 67 cases) in the LP Balloon group (p = 0.327). Conclusions The Blimp balloon catheter showed no superiority to customary low-profile balloons in uncrossable lesions. It can however be complementary in treating uncrossable lesions.