Five-year clinical follow-up of the STENTYS self-apposing stent in complex coronary anatomy: a single-centre experience with report of specific angiographic indications.

Objectives: We sought to investigate angiographic indications for the use of the STENTYS technique and evaluated the long-term safety and clinical efficacy of the stent.

Background: Coronary lesions involving complex anatomy, including aneurysmatic, ectatic, or tapered vessel segments often carry a substantial risk of stent malapposition. The self-apposing stent technique may reduce the risk of stent malapposition and therefore improve clinical outcomes.

Methods: A total of 120 consecutive patients treated with the STENTYS stent were included (drug-eluting stent (DES) n = 101, bare-metal stent (BMS) n = 19). All lesions were scored for angiographic indications for the STENTYS stent, including aneurysms, ectasias, tapering, absolute diameters, bifurcation lesions, and saphenous vein grafts. Off-line quantitative coronary angiography analyses were performed pre-procedure and post-procedure. Five years follow-up was obtained including cardiac death, target vessel myocardial infarction (TV-MI), target vessel revascularisation, stent thrombosis, and the composite endpoint target vessel failure (cardiac death, TV-MI and target vessel revascularisation).

Results: Angiographic indications for STENTYS use were aneurysm (30%), ectasia (19%), tapering (27%), bifurcation lesions (8%), and saphenous vein graft lesions (16%) and absolute diameters (22%). Mean maximal diameter was 4.51 ± 0.99 mm. At 5‑year follow-up target vessel failure rates were 24.1% in the total cohort (DES 22.8% vs. BMS 33%, p = 0.26). Definite stent thrombosis rate was 3.8% at 5‑year follow-up in this cohort with complex and high-risk lesions (DES 4.5% vs. BMS 0%, p = 0.39).

Conclusions: Angiographic indications for the use of the self-apposing stent were complex lesions with atypical coronary anatomy. Our data showed reasonable stent thrombosis rates at 5‑year follow-up, considering the high-risk lesion characteristics.