Bioabsorbable stents arouse great enthusiasm among both interventionalists and industry executives, because they have one major advantage over current stents, both bare metal and drug-eluting: they obviate the need for a permanent implant when only a temporary scaffolding effect is needed. Many stent companies are hedging their bets, working on stents that incorporate both drug elution and bioabsorbability--but not Paris-based Arterial Remodeling Technologies, which is arguing that natural healing, not drug therapy, is the best approach to therapeutically active stents.

Several interesting studies came out of this year's joint meeting of the American College of Cardiology and Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions. These studies--many of them about drug-eluting stents--will impact device manufacturers in both positive and negative ways.

Although safety concerns about drug-eluting stents have been mitigated somewhat by recent reports of more positive clinical data, there is lingering unease and confusion in the cardiology community about when, how, and in whom to use these devices. There is also a growing wave of healthy skepticism about the way stent trials are designed and conducted, and whether evidence- based medicine is well served by the current process.