Drug-eluting stents for the treatment of in-stent restenosis: A clinical review

Received 14 April 2005; accepted 18 April 2005.

Abstract

Treatment of in-stent restenosis (ISR) remains problematic despite the widespread application of drug-eluting stents (DES). Challenging lesion cohorts such as diffuse ISR and restenosis after failed intracoronary radiation therapy (IRT) maybe best treated with DES. The overall benefit of DES appears inferior to their utility in treating de novo coronary lesions. Randomised trials comparing DES and IRT will soon be available to determine the optimal therapy for ISR. The challenge to treat ISR in the DES era is the next frontier of interventional cardiology.

Keywords: In-stent restenosis, Drug-eluting stents, Sirolimus, Paclitaxel, Intracoronary radiation therapy

a Department of Cardiology, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne, Australia

b Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, NHMRC Centre of Clinical Research Excellence in Therapeutics, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

c Department of Cardiology, Washington Hospital Center, Washington, DC, United States

Corresponding author. Department of Cardiology, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Grattan Street, Parkville 3050, Australia. Tel.: +61 3 934 27000; fax: +61 3 934 72808.

PII: S1553-8389(05)00034-5

doi:10.1016/j.carrev.2005.04.003

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