Recent developments in drug-eluting stents

Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is an important treatment approach in the management of symptomatic coronary artery disease (CAD). A significant development in PCI in the mid 1970s was balloon angioplasty, followed by bare-metal stents a decade later, and now, the widespread use of drug-eluting stents (DES). While PCI has conferred remarkable benefit to millions of CAD patients, restenosis, and late stent thrombosis associated with DES remain problematic, and improvements are keenly sought. This article reviews recent developments in DES.