Second-Generation Drug-Eluting Coronary Stents

Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is usually performed with drug-eluting stents; since the introduction of these stents in 2002, more than 2 million have been implanted worldwide. Drug-eluting stents are metal stents that are coated with a polymer containing an antiproliferative agent, which is released gradually over the course of weeks to months after the stent is inserted, thereby providing sustained inhibition of the neointimal proliferation (the process that is responsible for restenosis) that occurs as a result of vascular injury. First-generation drug-eluting stents, which released sirolimus or paclitaxel, were shown to be superior to bare-metal stents and to balloon angioplasty . . .