Arq. Bras. Cardiol. 2020; 115(1): 90-91
Drug-Eluting Stents for Everyone: Is the Price Worth It?
Marcos Danillo P Oliveira
, Vanessa Teich
, Adriano Caixeta
This Short Editorial is referred by the Research article "Cost-effectiveness of Drug-Eluting Stents in Percutaneous Coronary Intervention in Brazil’s Unified Public Health System (SUS)".
Despite their initial revolutionary role for the interventional cardiology development, bare-metal stents (BMS) have as main drawback in-stent restenosis (ISR), which occurs in a significant proportion (up to 44%) of patients undergoing to percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI).
Drug-eluting stents (DES) became first available in the year 2,000. By locally releasing antiproliferative and anti-inflammatory drugs, there is an inhibition to the proliferation of smooth muscle cells, thereby mitigating a key factor to ISR. The introduction of second-generation DES, including everolimus-eluting and zotarolimus-eluting stents, has led to claims of improved safety with non-inferior efficacy compared with first generation DES devices, supported by numerous clinical trials.
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