Drug Eluting Stents

Angioplasty describes the modern technology allowing cardiologists to insert a tiny balloon into a blocked artery of the heart, inflate the balloon and dilate the narrowed area. After dilatation, the blood flow through the artery to the muscle of the heart improves.

Angioplasty works well, but in 30% of cases the blocked artery does not remain dilated permanently after the procedure and the artery closes up a second time. In the past, many of these patients required open-heart surgery, but in the mid 1990's, cardiologists began inserting tiny metal nets into the coronary arteries after an angioplasty. These tiny nets, called stents, prevent the narrowed arteries from collapsing after the balloon angioplasty. These stents reduced the rate of recurrent blockage after angioplasty from about 30% to approximately 15%, but many patients still required second angioplasties or ultimately ended up with open-heart surgery, because blood clots formed inside the metal stents.

In the last two years, researchers made another step forward - drug eluting stents. These stents are coated with a drug that helps prevent recurrent blockage from forming inside the metal. With the advent of this new technology, only around five percent of patients receiving angioplasties and stent placements will suffer a recurrent blockage in the treated artery.