Drug-Eluting Stents Versus Conventional Endovascular Therapies in Symptomatic Infrapopliteal Peripheral Artery...

Balloon angioplasty is the standard endovascular treatment for symptomatic infrapopliteal peripheral artery disease (PAD). However, recent trials have studied the effectiveness of drug-eluting stents (DES) for infrapopliteal PAD.

This study investigated the use of DES compared with standard endovascular techniques for treatment of infrapopliteal artery disease.

This is a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis of 9 recent randomized controlled trials. The primary clinical outcome assessed was primary patency. The secondary outcomes were target lesion revascularization (TLR), major limb amputation, and all-cause mortality.

A total of 945 patients met the inclusion criteria. Patients treated with DES were found to have increased primary patency than control at maximum follow-up (hazard ratio [HR] 2.17, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.58-2.97, P < .0001, I² = 62%). A similar result was seen in the subgroup of patients with critical limb ischemia (HR 2.58, 95% CI 1.49-4.49, P = .0008, I² = 75%). DES were associated with significantly lower rates of TLR than control at maximum follow-up (HR 0.48, 95% CI 0.33-0.68, P < .0001; I² = 11%). There was no statistical difference between DES versus control in rates of major limb amputation and mortality.

DES have superior primary patency and TLR rates with no difference in amputation and all-cause mortality rates compared with conventional endovascular therapies in patients with infrapopliteal PAD.