Antiplatelet therapy alone is safe and effective after coronary stenting: observations of a transition in practice

To evaluate the safety and efficacy of transition in practice after coronary stenting to antiplatelet therapy alone compared with anticoagulation with warfarin.

Retrospective analysis of coronary stent management in a tertiary Canadian centre.

A total of 136 consecutive patients (146 lesions) were analyzed who underwent Palmaz-Schatz coronary stenting over a 15-month period and were treated with anticoagulation with warfarin (56 patients) or antiplatelet therapy alone with ticlopidine and acetylsalicylic acid (80 patients) during the transition in poststenting therapy in the authors' practice. Treatment was continued for 30 days in both groups. High pressure stent deployment was used in the majority of cases (greater than 90%), and use of intravascular ultrasound was infrequent (less than 12%).

At 30 days, there were no clinical manifestations of stent thrombosis, coronary artery bypass surgery or repeat angioplasty in either group. One death occurred in the antiplatelet group. Periprocedural non-Q wave myocardial infarction occurred in two patients in the antiplatelet group and in one patient in the warfarin group. There was a significantly higher incidence of vascular complications in the warfarin group than in the antiplatelet group (14.3% versus 2.5%, respectively, P = 0.04). The length of hospital stay was significantly shorter in the antiplatelet group than in the warfarin group (3.0 +/- 1.8 versus 6.7 +/- 2.6 days, respectively, P < 0.001).

Reduced anticoagulation with antiplatelet therapy alone after coronary stenting, despite infrequent use of intravascular ultrasound, is an effective and safe strategy with a low rate of vascular complications, a relatively short hospital stay and a low incidence of clinical manifestations of stent thrombosis.