Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 19, 2026
Surgical Technique for the Implantation of Tissue Engineered Vascular Grafts and Subsequent In Vivo Monitoring
Published on: April 3, 2015
Beyond the early stages: insights from the ASSURE registry on bioresorbable vascular scaffolds
Jochen Wöhrle1, Christoph Naber, Thomas Schmitz
1Department of Internal Medicine II, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany.
Aims:
Bioresorbable vascular scaffolds (BVS) have been available on the European market since November 2011. The ASSURE registry aims to investigate the safety and efficacy of the Absorb everolimus-eluting bioresorbable vascular scaffold in a real-world setting.
Methods And Results:
Patients with de novo coronary artery disease were consecutively enrolled at six German centres in this prospective registry. Outcomes were procedural success, cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, and ischaemia-driven target lesion revascularisation (TLR). Angiographic parameters were assessed quantitatively and visual estimates of lesion dimensions were studied. One hundred and eighty-three patients were treated. In 128 (64.7%) lesions a complex ACC/AHA morphology was present. Procedural success was achieved in all patients. Acute gain was 1.54±0.51 mm, resulting in a final minimal lumen diameter (MLD), which met the baseline reference vessel diameter (RVD), although visual estimates overrated the RVD by 0.5±0.5 mm. Up to 12 months, one patient (0.5%) had died from gastrointestinal bleeding, three (1.7%) non-target vessel myocardial infarctions occurred, and five (2.8%) TLR had become necessary because of restenosis.
Conclusions:
One-year results suggest that bioresorbable vascular scaffolds for de novo coronary artery disease are associated with favourable clinical and functional outcomes in routine clinical practice despite a visually overestimated RVD.
