Drug eluting stents: focus on Cypher sirolimus-eluting coronary stents in the treatment of patients with bifurcation lesions.

Coronary bifurcations represent a challenging lesions subset and account for up to 15% of all current PCI. Regardless of the stenting technique used, however, restenosis rate after bare metal stent (BMS) is high, especially at the ostium of the side branch (SB). The introduction of drug-eluting stent (DES) has remarkably improved the outcome in bifurcation lesions compared to BMS, resulting in lower adverse events and main branch (MB) restenosis rates. Furthermore, although the "provisional" stenting technique (second stent on the SB placed, after the MB stenting, only in case of suboptimal or inadequate result) remained the prevailing approach, several two-stent techniques emerged (crush) or were re-introduced (V, T, culottes) to allow stenting in both branches when needed. At the present time, only few randomized studies and some observational reports specifically addressed the issue of bifurcation lesion treatment with sirolimus-eluting stents (SES). It is still not clear yet which is the better strategy between the provisional approach and stenting both branches when dealing with a bifurcation lesion which has a stenosis in the SB suitable for stenting. Moreover, no study has so far addressed which is the best strategy to use among the several techniques reported in the literature when both branches are intentionally stented from the outset. Finally, the introduction of dedicated stents for different types of bifurcations, with specific stent designs to provide good deliverability, secured access to the side branch, complete coverage of the lesion site without double/triple layers of stent struts, thus incorporating the benefits of drug elution and ensuring drug availability to all diseased surfaces, may further facilitate the conquest of one of the most challenging areas in interventional cardiology.