Drug-eluting stents (DES) have made a tremendous impact on the practice of percutaneous coronary intervention. Recently however, long-term DES failures have become a focal point, particularly with restenosis and thrombosis. An uncommon, yet important cause of DES failure is stent fracture. Of the two established first generation DES, the sirolimus-eluting stent (SES) has been particularly linked to cases of stent fracture, likely as a result of its closed cell design compared with other DES employing an open cell system. We present 2 cases of SES fracture confirmed using high-resolution intravascular optical coherence tomography giving unique insights into the in-vivo appearance of this complication.

, , ,
doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2008.04.076, hdl.handle.net/1765/24384
International Journal of Cardiology
Erasmus MC: University Medical Center Rotterdam

Barlis, P., Sianos, G., Ferrante, M., del Furia, F., D'Souza, S., & di Mario, C. (2009). The use of intra-coronary optical coherence tomography for the assessment of sirolimus-eluting stent fracture. International Journal of Cardiology, 136(1). doi:10.1016/j.ijcard.2008.04.076