Future Directions of Drug-Eluting Stents

Coronary artery stents have changed the face of interventional cardiology since their introduction in 1986. The commercial release of drug-eluting stents in 2002 promised to abolish in-stent restenosis as the predominant clinical limitation following stent implantation. Concerns raised about increased risks of adverse events with drug-eluting stents now appear unfounded but have heralded a new era of research, where only hard clinical end-points in sufficiently large numbers of patients are considered adequate. In this review, we highlight some of the potential future directions of drug- eluting stents including specialized stent platforms (including dedicated bifurcation stents), fully degradable stents, and the potential use of stents to prevent cardiac events. (J Interven Cardiol 2009; 22: S96-S105)