Coronary angioplasty: Back to the future

• Main Authors: Nilkanth Chandrakant Patil, Veena Nanjappa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2017-01-01
• Series: Journal of the Practice of Cardiovascular Sciences
• Subjects: Coronary angiography; coronary angioplasty; history of cardiology
• Online Access: http://www.j-pcs.org/article.asp?issn=2395-5414;year=2017;volume=3;issue=1;spage=44;epage=52;aulast=Patil

Puel and Sigwart, in 1986, deployed the first coronary stent to act as a scaffold preventing vessel closure reducing the incidence of angiographic restenosis. The first stents were bare metal stents. The first drug-eluting stents to be approved were coated with paclitaxel or sirolimus. Since these stents came with a lot of promise but also with risk of thrombosis, the next step was biodegradable stents. These stents are expected to degrade into nontoxic byproducts. They came with a lot of fanfare but are now being viewed with caution because of initial poor results. We do not know what the future holds.