In 2 recent studies published in NEJM, both essentially show that DES and bare metal stents have similar safety profiles, but that DES have lower restenosis rates. The first study looked at outcomes of almost 30,000 patients in a large Swedish registry that had a single stent, and found no difference in death or MI, but much lower clinical restenosis in the DES patients (abstract). The other RCT of over 3000 STEMI patients found no difference in death or thrombosis between the stent types, but the DES group required fewer revasularizations (abstract). Both of these trials support the use of DES in those able and willing to continue long-term dual anti-platelet therapy.
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