First-in-human description of everolimus-eluting bioabsorbable vascular scaffold implantation for the treatment of drug-eluting stent failure: Insights from optical coherence tomography

Abstract

Drug-eluting stents (DES) markedly reduce new episodes of revascularization compared with bare-metal stents; nevertheless, the prevalence of DES in-stent restenosis (ISR) is not insignificant as a large population is treated with these devices worldwide [1]. In addition, concerns regarding long-term safety of metallic DES [2] stimulated investigators to seek for improvement of this therapy. Everolimus-eluting bioabsorbable vascular scaffolds (BVS, Abbott Vascular, Santa Clara, CA, USA) emerged as an interesting alternative, as they enable vessel scaffolding in short-term and anti-restenotic drug delivery, while avoiding long-term limitations of metallic DES (i.e., prolonged metal exposure to coronary circulation in case of delayed healing).