From drug eluting stents to bioresorbable scaffolds; to new horizons in PCI

ABSTRACT Drug eluting stents and particularly the fully bioresorbable drug-eluting scaffolds herald a new era in percutaneous treatment of coronary artery disease. There has been tremendous progress in drug eluting stents with fully biodegradable coating polymers and polymer-free devices with reservoir technology planting the anti-proliferative drug. Despite significant decreases in in-stent restenosis rates with drug eluting stents, limitations still remain before we are able to develop fully bioresorbable scaffolds. Enhanced mechanical flexibility that provides superior conformability to the vessel wall, resumption of the vasoreactivity in the follow-up period and improving visualization on non-invasive imaging modalities are some of the supremacies of the fully bioresorbable scaffolds. In this review, we aim to give a general view on the latest developments in metallic drug eluting stents and fully bioresorbable scaffolds.