Angiographic pattern of in-stent restenosis (ISR) after drug-eluting stent (DES) implantation different to that after bare metal stent (BMS), but their subsequent TLR rate was similar to both types of DES.
Drug-eluting stents (DES) have gained widespread adoption being implanted in over 6 million patients worldwide demonstrating significant improvements in clinical efficacy combined with comparable safety to bare metal stents.
An investigational bioabsorbable coronary artery stent, in its first human trials, showed acceptable safety, with efficacy better than bare-metal devices but well short of drug-eluting devices, Dutch researchers said here.
Two Swiss meta-analyses have found an increased rate of myocardial infarction and death with the Cypher (sirolimus-eluting) coronary stent, which is likely to put a serious chill in interventional cardiology's infatuation with drug-coated devices
Articles on the various questions, problems, and controversies currently plaguing drug-eluting stents: deployment techniques, stent qualities, antiplatelet therapies, and etiologies of post-DES thrombosis and restenosis.
We must optimize stent deployment & maintain a registry of how well (or poorly) we use drug-eluting stents. Instead of asking “Which stent?” or “How much anti-platelet therapy?” we must ask “How effectively are we deploying our stents?”