Does the New Generation of Drug-Eluting Stents Render Bare Metal Stents Obsolete?

The development of bare metal coronary stents revolutionized the treatment of coronary artery disease by reducing rates of acute vessel closure and restenosis associated with balloon angioplasty. However, bare metal stents (BMS) resulted in high rates of restenosis and led to the development of drug-eluting stents (DES). Those first-generation DES were followed by successive generations of DES that included improvements, such as biodegradable and more biocompatible polymers. Despite the superiority of the current DES compared to BMS, a subset of patients still receives BMS.

Source: Cardiovascular Revascularization Medicine - April 2, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Kyle Buchanan, Arie Steinvil, Ron Waksman Source Type: research