SUMMARY Drug-Eluting Stents Versus Bare-Metal Stents forthe Treatment of Single Left Anterior DescendingArtery: Two Year Clinical Follow-Up Introduction: Percutaneous treatment (PCI) of single lesionsin the LAD with balloon angioplasty or bare-metal stent(BMS) often have poorer outcomes when compared to PCIof lesions in the other major coronary arteries. Objective: To compare the long term safety and efficacy of DES vs.BMS for the treatment of single lesions in the LAD . Methods: Between June 2002 and June 2003, 166 patients withsingle lesions in the LAD were treated with DES andcompared to a historic cohort of 141 patients treated withBMS under the same inclusion/exclusion criteria. Longterm clinical follow-up (approximately 2 years) was obtainedin all patients. The primary endpoint was the comparisonof major adverse cardiac events (MACE) defined as cardiacdeath, non fatal MI and target-lesion revascularization(TLR) between the two groups. Results: Baseline clinicalcharacteristics did not differ between groups. Proceduresuccess was achieved in all cases with no in hospitalMACE. After two years of follow-up, 95.7% of patientstreated with DES and 73.7% treated with BMS were freefrom any MACE (p < 0.0001). TLR occurred in 15.6% and1.2% of the patients receiving BMS and DES respectively(p < 0.0001). Although not significantly reduced, cardiacdeath was less frequent among patients treated with theseDES (6.38% vs. 1.81%, p = 0.07).