Investigator-driven randomized trials

Over the past decade, newer generation metallic drug-eluting stents using more biocompatible or bioresorbable polymer coatings have been shown to improve vascular healing after coronary stenting. These high-performing devices currently represent the gold standard for the treatment of coronary artery disease across a broad spectrum of clinical and anatomic subsets [1-9]. More recently, drug-eluting bioresorbable scaffolds have attracted substantial interest. Indeed, a drug-eluting bioresorbable scaffold may exhibit several desirable properties, providing not only short-term vessel scaffolding and, through local drug delivery, similar antirestenotic effectiveness to current-generation metallic drug-eluting stents, but also, by fully resorbing, may facilitate enhanced vessel healing, allowing restoration of vasomotion and a potential reduction in the risk of late and very late stent thrombosis [10-13]. Although a number of bioresorbable scaffolds are currently under investigation, to date, only two devices have received CE mark approval [10]. Of these, only the ABSORB bioresorbable scaffold (Abbott Vascular, Abbott Park, IL) has been extensively tested in clinical trials. A number of recent clinical investigations assessing the performance of the ABSORB bioresorbable vascular scaffold in large populations of patients with coronary artery disease have generated enthusiasm for the device as a promising therapeutic alternative to metallic drug-eluting stents (DESs) [14-16].