A case of early drug-eluting stent fracture

Although stent fracture following femoro-popliteal intervention is well recognized, coronary stent fracture represents an underrecognized entity. Its incidence is low but it represents an important clinical entity as it may complicate with stent thrombosis causing acute coronary syndromes, or may predispose to instent restenosis. Although coronary stent fracture may involve both bare metal stents (BMS) and drug-eluting stents (DES), a recent analysis of the literature indicates that reports of stent fracture have increased since DES was introduced. Furthermore, chronic stretch at specific vessel sites as bends may lead to late occurrence of fracture. We present the case of a patient with a non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndrome caused by the early fracture of an everolimus-eluting stent (Xience®) implanted only three days before.