10-year study shows safety of biodegradable coronary artery stent

The journal Circulation has published a study on the safety of fully biodegradable coronary artery Igaki-Tamai stents implanted in humans, which allows blood flow to the heart muscle of patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD), a disorder wherein fatty deposits narrow the leg arteries. Unlike metal stents, the biodegradable stent, made of poly-l-lactic acid, dissolves into the artery wall leaving no foreign material, reducing the occurrence of an in-stent blood clot. For 10 years, researchers tracked 50 Japanese patients, 44 of which were men, with an average age of 61-years-old, who received 84 Igaki-Tamai stents between September 1998 and April 2000. Results showed that 98 percent did not die from cardiac problems, 50 percent experienced no major cardiac complication, and that complication rates were similar to those that used bare metal stents. Based on the study, the stent was totally absorbed in three years, not six months as they had expected.