Are Drug-Eluting Stents Safer Than Bare-Metal Stents?

A patient-level meta-analysis suggests that the answer is yes.

Drug-eluting coronary stents (DES) have reduced rates of restenosis and repeat revascularization compared with bare-metal stents (BMS), but first-generation DES were associated with higher rates of stent thrombosis than BMS — particularly beyond the first few months after implantation. Over the past decade, in efforts to improve safety and efficacy, various second-generation DES have been developed with different alloys, polymers, and antiproliferative drugs. Although studies have suggested that these second-generation DES are safer than BMS, these studies typically involved indirect comparisons from network meta-analyses.

To overcome this limitation, investigators performed a patient-level meta-analysis of pooled data on 26,616 patients fro…

Reviewing Author

David J. Cohen, MD, MSc

Disclosures

Consultant/Advisory BoardMedtronic; Edwards Lifesciences; Abbott Vascular; Boston Scientific; St. Francis Hospital

Speaker’s BureauBoston Scientific; ZOLL Medical

Grant/Research SupportEdwards Lifesciences; Abbott Vascular; Boston Scientific; Corvia Medical; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; Phillips, Inc.; St. Paul’s Hospital; V-Wave, Inc; ZOLL Medical; CathWorks, ANCORA

Editorial BoardsJACC; American Heart Journal; EuroIntervention; JSCAI; Structural Heart Journal

Leadership Positions in Professional SocietiesSociety of Thoracic Surgeons/American College of Cardiology TVT Registry (Co-Chair, Risk Model Development Committee); Cardiovascular Research Foundation (Co-Director, TCT Annual Meeting; Co-Director, New York Valves Annual Meeting)