Outcomes of drug eluting stents vs. drug eluting balloons. A single center experience

Abstract

Abstract Introduction Drug eluting stents (DES) are considered the default treatment option in the current era of percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI). Nevertheless, the use of drug eluting balloons (DEB) remains highly relevant, especially in the setting of in stent restenosis (ISR), and de-novo small vessel disease or bifurcation lesions. Material and method Among 17,630 consecutive PCI procedures performed in our tertiary medical center between 2010 and 2021, we identified 16,435 procedures performed using DES and 1,195 using DEB. Endpoints included mortality and major adverse cardiac events [MACE: death, myocardial infarction (MI), target vessel revascularization (TVR), and coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG)] at 1 year. Propensity score matching was used to create a well-balanced cohort. Results and discussion: Mean age was similar (65.7±12.1 vs. 65.8±11.1, p=0.85), but less female patients (16.7% vs. 21.2%, p<0.01) were observed in the DEB group. DEB patients presented with higher rates of diabetes, hypertension, and prior CABG (62.1% vs. 48.1%, 84.9% vs. 73.2% and 18.3% vs. 10.1% respectively, p<0.01 for all), as compared to DES patients. There were also higher rates of PCI for bifurcation lesions and in-stent restenosis (18.3% vs. 15.1% and 56.0% vs. 7.8% respectively, p<0.01 for both) in the DEB group. After propensity and adjustment for confounders, 370 matched pairs were compared. 1-year MACE rates were significantly higher (HR-1.51, 95%CI 1.04-2.18, p=0.03) in the DEB group, as compared to the DES group. This was driven by higher MI (6.8% vs. 1.9%, p<0.01), TVR (20.5% vs. 11.4%, p<0.01) and CABG (12.2% vs. 7.3%, p=0.02) rates in the DEB group. Adjusted rates of 1-year mortality (HR-1.20, 95%CI 0.75-1.67, p=0.45) did not differ between the two groups. Conclusions Treatment with DEB was associated with increased MACE at 1-year, driven by higher rates of MI, TVR and CABG, as compared to DES.Freedom from MACE