Stent placement compared with balloon angioplasty for small coronary arteries - In-hospital and 6-month clinical and angiographic results

Background-Stenting has been demonstrated to be superior to balloon angiopl asty in de novo focal lesions located in large native vessels. However, in small vessels, the benefit of stenting remains questionable. Methods and Results-A total of 381 symptomatic patients with de novo focal lesion located on a small coronary segment vessel (<3 mm) were randomly ass igned to either stent implantation (192 patients; 197 lesions) or standard balloon angioplasty (189 patients; 198 lesions). The primary end point was the angiographic restenosis rate at 6 months, as determined by quantitative coronary angiography. On intention-to-treat analysis, angiographic success rate and major adverse cardiac events were comparable: 97.9% and 4.6% vers us 93.9% and 5.8% in the stent group and the balloon group, respectively. A fter the procedure, a larger acute gain was achieved with stent placement ( 1.35 +/-0.45 versus 0.94 +/-0.47 mm, P=0.0001), resulting in a larger minim al lumen diameter (2.06 +/-0.42 versus 1.70 +/-0.46 mm, P=0.0001). At follo w-up (obtained in 91% of patients), angiographic restenosis rate was 21% in the stent group versus 47% in the balloon group (P=0.0001), a risk reducti on of 55%. Repeat target lesion revascularization was less frequent in the stent group (13% versus 25%, P=0.0006). Conclusions-Elective stent placement in small coronary arteries with focal de novo lesions is safe and associated with a marked reduction in restenosi s rate and subsequent target lesion revascularization rate at 6 months.