Drug-eluting technologies in femoral artery lesions

The treatment of femoropopliteal lesions has known an important evolution in the last years. An important limitation of current endovascular therapy remains the occurrence of restenosis. In order to minimize restenosis rates, drug eluting technologies are evolving. The use of drug-eluting stents (DES) in coronary arteries shows beneficial results, leading to investigation of DES in femoropopliteal arteries. In this article, we give an overview of current available data on treatment with drug eluting technologies in the superficial femoral artery (SFA). This paper summarizes also the current available data of the use of drug-coated balloons (DCB) in the femoropopliteal tract. Currently, no data are available on the use of DCB in long lesions. A drug eluting bioresorbable scaffold seems to be very promising in coronary arteries. The transfer to the peripheral area is nowadays ongoing. Which technique and device for which lesion and patient requires further investigation to build up a real evidence based SFA treatment strategy.