Summary
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the western and developing
countries. Percutaneous transluminal coronary interventions have become the most prevalent
treatment option for coronary artery disease; however, due to serious complications,
such as stent thrombosis and in-stent restenosis (ISR), the efficacy and safety of
the procedure remain important issues to address. Strategies to overcome these aspects
are under extensive investigation. In this review, we summarise relevant milestones
during the time to overcome these limitations of coronary stents, such as the development
of polymer-free drug-eluting stents (DES) to avoid pro-inflammatory response due to
the polymer coating or the developement of stents with cell-directing drugs to, simultaneously,
improve re-endothelialisation and inhibit ISR amongst other techniques most recently
developed, which have not fully entered the clinical stage. Also the novel concept
of fully biodegradable DES featured by the lack of a permanent foreign body promises
to be a beneficial and applicable tool to restore a natural vessel with maintained
vasomotion and to enable optional subsequent surgical revascularisation.
Keywords
Coronary interventions - stent implantation - neointima formation - stent thrombosis
- in-stent restenosis