FEATURED EDITORIAL
Drug-eluting stents: do the risks really outweigh the benefits?
1 BHF Cardiovascular Research Centre, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
2 Western Infirmary, Glasgow, UK
Correspondence to:
Dr K G Oldroyd, Department of Cardiology, Western Infirmary, Dumbarton Road, Glasgow G11 6NT, UK; keith.oldroyd@northglasgow.scot.nhs.uk
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
The safety of drug-eluting stents (DES) has been called into question by studies suggesting a predisposition to late stent thrombosis—an uncommon but potentially fatal complication.1–4 Consequently, balancing the risks and benefits of DES use in an individual patient undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is challenging, particularly as studies have often been unrepresentative of routine practice, underpowered, prone to bias or used inconsistent definitions of stent thrombosis.
D Austin
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K Oldroyd
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WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?
DES have been studied widely in patients undergoing single vessel PCI for stable or unstable angina. "On-label" use of both sirolimus-eluting and paclitaxel-eluting stents is defined by the inclusion criteria for their respective pivotal randomised clinical trials (RCTs).5 6 In patients randomised to DES there was an approximate 10% absolute reduction in the need for target lesion revascularisation at 9 months; this benefit was sustained to at least 4 years of follow-up.5–7 Subsequent studies have demonstrated the efficacy of DES in
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Interventional cardiology
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Venous thromboembolism
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Drugs: cardiovascular system
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