Drug-coated balloons and drug-eluting stents: clinical effectiveness revisited.

Critical limb ischemia (CLI) is a common and devastating manifestation of peripheral arterial disease leading to ischemic rest pain, ulcerations, gangrene and tissue loss. Thus advanced endovascular techniques have been developed in order to achieve higher success rate, such as retrograde recanalisation and drug eluting devices. However, the correlation between patency of the vessels and clinical outcome (limb salvage, ulcer healing, Rutherford class improvement) is still debated. We reviewed the most recent trials and studies investigating the clinical effectiveness of drug eluting stents and balloons for the treatment of CLI.