Stents have been in the news lately. What’s the difference between so-called drug-eluting stents and bare-metal stents?

Q. Stents have been in the news lately. What’s the difference between so-called drug-eluting stents and bare-metal stents?

A. Stents, which are metal devices that are placed inside arteries after angioplasty to help keep them open, have been used to treat coronary artery blockages for years. Drug-eluting stents are coated with a drug released over time that decreases the chances of a blockage returning. Bare-metal stents are not coated. Some reports have suggested that clots are more likely to develop inside drug-eluting stents than in bare-metal stents. However, researchers did not find a greater incidence of heart attack or death with drug-eluting stents, and the need for a repeat procedure was significantly reduced.

Guest Expert:
Timothy A. Sanborn, MD is professor of medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, and head of the Division of Cardiology at Evanston Northwestern Healthcare in Evanston, Ill.