by Mary Stuart
Restenosis—the tendency of vessels to reocclude in the months following balloon angioplasty—is often described as an "annuity" for interventional cardiologists, although the physicians wish that it wasn't so
Stent and Deliver
Stents have been very effective at avoiding elastic recoil by mechanically holding arteries open after balloon angioplasty. They have also, to a certain extent, alleviated the problem of restenosis, the reocclusion of the artery in the months following angioplasty. Unfortunately, however, stents don't go far enough to prevent restenosis--anywhere from 10% to 40% of patients will develop restenosis within six months of revascularization procedures--and the devices frequently result in a new, man-made and difficult-to-treat kind of restenosis, known as in-stent restenosis. Thus, device developers are putting serious development effort into enhanced stents that can carry and deliver drugs to combat restenosis locally.