Histopathology of vascular response to drug-eluting stents: an insight from human autopsy into daily practice.

Drug-eluting stents (DES) were developed with the primary purpose of inhibiting neointimal overgrowth following percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). While DES have significantly reduced the rates of restenosis compared with bare metal stent (BMS), they have not completely eliminated it. Moreover, late stent thrombosis (LST), attributed to delayed arterial healing or abnormal vessel responses to DES, have emerged as a major safety concern. Although newer DES or other novel devices are expected to show promising results, the problems in interventional technologies have not been completely resolved. In this review, we will consider the current status of DES in clinical practice and discuss the strengths and limitations of recent advances from the view of histopathology.