Drug coated stents or drug eluting stents, have been effective in reducing the risk of arterial reclogging after an angioplasty, but have also been found to result in new complications that can place patients implanted with these at a serious risk of a heart attack, possibly resulting in death.

What are Drug coated Stents?

A stent is a tube made of metal or plastic that is inserted into an artery during an angioplasty procedure to hold apart the walls of the artery.  These stents remain implanted after a balloon angioplasty to prevent the arterial walls that have been cleared, from closing in again.   Since their introduction in the nineties, however, the stents have been found to be unable to prevent the growth of cells over the stents, leading to a clog in the artery again.  To solve this problem and prevent arterial reclogging (restenosis)  through cell growth, surgeons began implanting drug coated stents or drug eluting stents in place of the plain tubes that were used earlier.  These devices received approval in 2003 and worked by slowing releasing medication over a period of time to prevent new cell growth and scarring at the site of the stent.  Any new clogging of the artery, it was believed, could thus be prevented, and the technique found great favor among medical professionals. The companies that manufactured these stents, including Cordis Corporation with its Cypher Sirolimus Eluting Coronary Stent and Boston Scientific Corporation with its Taxus Express Paclitaxel Eluting Coronary Stent System saw billions of dollars in sales as over one million Americans were implanted with the drug coated stents.

Effects of Drug Coated Stents

The stents were able to eliminate the cell growth problems that plagued the earlier stents, but new complications began to emerge.  The presence of the stents contributed to a blood clot formation in the artery that could potentially lead to blockage.  It appeared that patients might have traded the risk of restenosis with another risk of thrombosis, or the formation of a blood clot in the artery. 

Reports of injuries and death began to surface and one estimate published on the website of the American College of Cardiology estimated that the number of deaths caused due to stent related thrombosis or blood clotting in the artery, was more than 2000.  The Food and Drug administration in 2006 clarified that it had received scientific data that suggested an increased risk of thrombosis leading to a cardiac arrest and death in patients implanted with the medicated stents.