Drug-eluting stents for PAD: what does (all) the data tell us?

When the FDA approved the use of a paclitaxel-coated stent in the peripheral arteries in November of 2012, a new era in the treatment of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) emerged. This marked, for the first time in the United States, that a drug-eluting device was available to treat this complex arterial bed, and has likely changed forever how PAD is treated. Prior to this, US physicians had been using drug-eluting stents (DES) in the coronary arteries for 8 years with exceptional results in both safety and efficacy. Since the Zilver®PTX® (Cook Medical, Bloomington, IN USA) was released, multiple drug-coated balloons (DCB) with paclitaxel have been approved in the US, as has another DES, the Eluvia™ stent (Boston Scientific, Minneapolis, MN USA).