Van Der Giessen W J, Van Beusekom H M M
Department of Cardiology, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Minerva Cardioangiol. 2011 Feb;59(1):31-8.
Current drug-eluting stents (DES) perform well compared to bare metal stents. However, long-term rates of major adverse events and in particular repeat revascularization by PCI are still an issue. In this concise review we will discuss the possibilities of biodegradable coatings to improve biocompatibility of DES. Among the various members of the synthetic biodegradable polymer family, polyesters are widely used and attractive for their ease of degradation, with degradation products often being resorbed through general metabolic pathways. A new development is surface functionalization of polyesters to improve endothelialization.
