Oral triple antiplatelet therapy after percutaneous coronary intervention: Subject with ongoing arguments?

Abstract

The importance of antiplatelet therapy has been appreciated more after the introduction of stent implantations into clinical practice. Use of coated stents has lowered the late restenosis rates to less than 10%, however, this technical achievement has brought together the need for longer and more intense antiplatelet therapies. Although dual antiplatelet therapy has become standard after stent implantations and been imported into practice guidelines, certain problems persist regarding the duration of therapy, ongoing stent thrombosis under dual antiplatelet therapy and whether triple antiplatelet therapy or its alternatives might provide additional benefit in these patients. In this paper, we discussed different aspects of dual and triple antiplatelet therapy in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention.