Coronary-Artery Stents

At present, 90 to 95 percent of percutaneous coronary interventions involve the implantation of a stent, often a drug-eluting stent, though most published data originated in the era of bare-metal stents. This article reviews the indications for and biology of coronary-artery stents, focusing on recent advances in drug-eluting stents. At present, 90 to 95 percent of percutaneous coronary interventions involve the implantation of a stent, often a drug-eluting stent. This article reviews the indications for and biology of coronary-artery stents, focusing on recent advances in drug-eluting stents. The use of percutaneously introduced prosthetic devices to maintain the luminal integrity of diseased blood vessels was proposed by Dotter and Judkins in 1964, 1 well before the introduction of coronary angioplasty by Grüntzig et al. in 1977. 2 Palmaz et al. introduced the use of balloon-mounted stents (as used in coronary arteries today) in peripheral arteries in 1985. 3 Schatz et al. subsequently modified the Palmaz stent, which led to the development of the first commercially successful stent, the Palmaz–Schatz stent. 4 Puel and Sigwart were the first to implant a stent in humans in March 1986; they used a self-expanding mesh device. . . .