Abstract
Smaller coronary arteries are less able to accommodate late loss after percutaneous coronary interventions than larger arteries. The first-generation drug-eluting stents have been shown to have better control of neo-intimal hyperplasia and lower late lumen loss compared with bare-metal stents. However, the reported rates of binary restenosis are still unsatisfactory and small target vessel interventions remain challenging. Recently, a study using a subset of the SPIRIT III trial has demonstrated that the everolimus-eluting stent lowered late lumen loss, rates of binary restenosis and target lesion revascularization compared with the paclitaxel-eluting stent. In this article, we review previous studies evaluating small-vessel interventions and focus on the everolimus-eluting stent in this clinical entity.
Financial & competing interests disclosure
James B Hermiller is a research consultant for Abbott Vascular. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.