The Advent of a Bioabsorbable Drug-Eluting Stent

A cardiac stent that scaffolds the vessel wall for as long as needed — without provoking neointimal proliferation and thrombosis — and then disappears is of great theoretical benefit. This prospective, open-label study, funded and administered by the manufacturer, included 30 patients with ischemia and a de novo lesion suitable for treatment with a single 3-mm x 12-mm or 3-mm x 18-mm stent. The study stent has a bioabsorbable polylactic acid backbone coated with a more rapidly absorbed polylactic acid layer that contains and controls the release of the antiproliferative drug everolimus. The composite clinical endpoint of cardiac death, MI, or ischemia-driven target-lesion revascularization (TLR) was assessed in all patients at 6 and 12 mont…