Safety and efficacy of drug-eluting stent combined with drug-coated balloon in the treatment of complex coronary artery lesions.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to explore the safety and efficacy of drug-eluting stents (DES) combined with drug-coated balloons (DCB) in the treatment of complex coronary artery lesions.

METHODS

In total, 305 patients with complex coronary artery lesions who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention were retrospectively included in this study. The patients were divided into the DES combined with the DCB treatment group (hybrid group) and the DES-only treatment group (DES group), and the target lesion revascularization (TLR) and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) were compared between the two groups during 2-year follow-up.

RESULTS

There were no significant differences between the two groups in baseline clinical characteristics ( P  > 0.05). In the treated lesions of reference vessel diameters (RVD) ≥3 mm, there were no significant differences in coronary angiography and interventional characteristics between the two groups. In the treated lesion of RVD <3mm, the hybrid group had a higher proportion of lesion preparation ( P <0.001) and a higher rate of residual stenosis ( P <0.001) than the DES group. During the 2-year follow-up, the clinical outcomes between the two groups showed no significant differences. After propensity score matching, there were still no significant differences between the two groups in the cumulative survival rates without TLR (95.8% vs. 94.2%; log-rank P  = 0.560) or MACE (89.4% vs. 87.8%; log-rank P  = 0.578) at 2-year follow-up.

CONCLUSION

During the 2-year follow-up, DES combined with DCB treatment showed similar efficacy and safety compared with DES-only treatment in complex coronary artery lesions.