ABSTRACT
Introduction Stents are fenestrated hollow metal tubes that are used to scaffold arteries following balloon angioplasty. Both balloonexpandable and self-expanding stent designs have been used in the coronary circulation. Stenting of de novo lesions with balloon-expandable stents has been shown to produce a significant reduction in restenosis rates when compared with balloon angioplasty in randomized trials (1,2). However, restenosis rates after bare metal stenting still remained at 15% to 20% in patients with simple lesions and over 30% in patients with complex lesions (3).
