Yamamoto K, Natsuaki M, Morimoto T, et al. - About 90% of patients in a real-world population of those who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) were found to be receiving >=5 medications, and a higher crude incidence of all-cause death was noted in relation to increasing medications, whereas adjusted mortality risks were similar irrespective of the number of medications. Probably, achievement of optimal medical therapy would be favored, even if it might increase the number of medications used.

• Polypharmacy has been documented to be linked with elevated mortality in several populations.

• A total of 12,291 patients who had first PCI in the CREDO-Kyoto PCI/CABG registry Cohort-3 were included, and the number of medications at discharge from index PCI hospitalization were assessed.

• Receiving >=5 medications was evident in 88.0% of the patients.

• An incremental rise in cumulative 5-year incidence of all-cause death was observed in association with increasing number of medications (Tertile 1 [<=5]: 13.1%, Tertile 2 [6 to 7]: 13.9%, and Tertile 3 [>=8]: 18.0%, log-rank p <0.001).

• Post-adjustment of confounders, the mortality risks of Tertile 2 and Tertile 3 compared with Tertile 1 were no longer significant (Tertile 2: hazard ratio 0.93, and Tertile 3: hazard ratio 0.91, respectively).