Intracoronary stents

Interventional cardiology has undergone exciting changes since the first percutaneous transluminal coro-_ nary angioplasty was performed by Andreas Gruentzig in 1977.' Over the last several years, a variety of techniques have been developed which provide the interventional cardiologist with a range of options to treat coronary stenoses. In addition, the indications for intervention have radically changed since the original work by Gruentzig, who limited treatment to patients with a single focal stenosis in a large vessel. Advances in balloon angioplasty, as well as the development of new techniques such as directional atherectomy, laser angioplasty, rotational atherectomy, extraction atherectomy, and now intracoronary stents have given the interventional cardiologist the ability to treat multivessel disease, increasingly complex lesions, and less stable patients."