Drug-coated balloons for coronary artery disease: current concepts and controversies

Drug-coated balloons (DCBs) are a novel development for percutaneous coronary intervention. The first successful application was in-stent restenosis but in recent years, strong evidence has been released for its use in native small-vessels disease. Additional applications such as acute myocardial infarction, chronic total occlusion and bifurcation lesions are still under investigation. This article reviews the key studies evaluating the role of DCBs in several settings and reports on interesting cases where DCBs showed positive results for high-risk patients with neoplasm, as well as with high bleeding risk, planned surgery or renal injury. We also highlight a new biodegradable therapy for coronary bifurcation treatment, in which a bioresorbable vascular scaffold is implanted in the main branch, completed with a DCB angioplasty in the side branch when a treatment is deemed necessary.

Drug-coated balloon treatment of coronary artery disease: a position paper of the Italian Society of Interventional Cardiology

Drug-coated balloons are a new tool for the treatment of patients with coronary artery disease. The main feature of this technology is a rapid and homogenous transfer of an antiproliferative drug (paclitaxel) to the vessel wall just at the time of balloon inflation, when neointimal proliferation, in response to angioplasty, is the highest. Moreover, drug-coated balloons share adjuntive advantages over stents: the absence of permanent scaffold and polymer, the respect of the original coronary anatomy, and limited inflammatory stimuli, thereby allowing for short-term dual antiplatelet therapy. To this day, a lot of devices are available in the market, with limited scientific data for the vast majority of them. Thus, the Italian scientific society of interventional cardiologists GISE decided to coordinate the efforts of a group of reknown experts on the field, in order to obtain a Position Paper on the correct use of drug-coated balloons in all the settings of coronary artery disease, giving a class of indication to each one, based on the clinical evidence. This Position Paper represents a quick reference for operators, investigators, and manufactures to promote the understanding and the correct use of the drug-coated balloon technology in everyday clinical practice.