Preliminary experience with the V-flex plus coronary stent: Immediate and one-month clinical outcome

Procedural and 1-month outcome data following implantation of the V-Flex Pl us stent in our first 54 consecutive patients (35 male; mean age, 62 years) are described. Sixty-four stents were implanted for 60 mainly complex lesi ons; 48% were left anterior descending; 20%, circumflex; 27%, right coronar y artery; and 5%, saphenous vein graft. The indication for stenting was ele ctive in half of the patients and for a suboptimal result or as a bailout p rocedure in the other half. The stents were deployed at a mean of 12 atm (r ange, 6-18) and postdilated to a mean of 15 atm (range, 3-20). Pre- and pos tdilatation balloon sizes were 2.96 +/- 0.57 mm and 3.16 +/- 0.34 mm, respe ctively. The procedural success rate was 98%. There were no deaths or Q-wav e myocardial infarctions. One patient suffered a non-a-wave myocardial infa rction and another developed a femoral false aneurysm. At 1-month follow-up , there were no additional events, in particular no revascularization proce dures. Eighty-nine percent of patients were free of angina. Implantation of the V-Flex Plus stent is safe and effective with an excellent early succes s rate comparable to that of published randomized trials and registries of carefully selected patients. Cathet. Cardiovasc. Intervent 47:504-508, 1999 . (C) 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.