eClinicalMedicine: Drug-Coated Balloons Could Offer an Alternative to Permanent Stents in Heart Treatment

The researchers examined the results of 10 randomized clinical trials involving 7,832 people with coronary artery disease. In this condition, narrowed coronary arteries restrict blood flow to the heart muscle and increase the risk of serious complications.

The standard treatment for many of these patients is angioplasty with stent placement. A stent is a small metal mesh tube inserted into a narrowed section of an artery to keep it open. It remains permanently in the blood vessel.

An alternative approach involves using a special drug-coated balloon. The balloon is inserted into the narrowed artery and inflated, allowing the medication to penetrate the vessel wall and help prevent the artery from narrowing again. The balloon is then removed, leaving no permanent implant in the artery.

The analysis showed that the two methods were comparable in terms of two key outcomes: the risk of cardiovascular death and the likelihood of a heart attack. The researchers found no significant differences between the patient groups for either outcome.

However, the drug-coated balloon approach had a potential drawback. When treating larger coronary arteries, patients in this group were more likely to require another procedure to restore blood flow. The authors cautioned, however, that the results varied considerably across the studies and that this finding depended largely on a single clinical trial.

According to the study's lead researcher, Natasha Corballis of Norwich Medical School at the University of East Anglia, the findings suggest that drug-coated balloons could serve as an alternative to stents for selected patients. The study's senior author, Professor Vassilios Vassiliou, noted that an approach that leaves no permanent device in the artery could potentially reduce certain long-term complications and preserve more options for future treatment.