Francesco Burzotta

Jailed balloon protection: a new technique to avoid acute side-branch occlusion during provisional stenting of bifurcated lesions. Bench test report and first clinical experience

AIMSnProvisional stenting with drug-eluting-stents is actually adopted to treat most of bifurcated lesions. A major drawback of this technique is the risk of side-branch (SB) closure after main vessel (MV) stenting.nnnMETHODS AND RESULTSnWe set-up, and bench tested, a novel technique for SB protection based on the placement of a balloon in the SB during MV stenting. The uninflated balloon, which remains jailed under the stent struts, serves to reduce both carina and plaque shifts due to its SB ostium spatial occupation. If SB flow is preserved after MV stenting, the jailed balloon is removed uninflated. If the SB becomes occluded after MV stenting, the jailed balloon may either be used as a marker and a favourable angle modifier to facilitate rewiring or can be dilated to try to restore SB flow. SB rewiring and kissing balloon inflation must be performed to correct stent deformation or malapposition. This novel technique has been successfully adopted in 20 patients with complex (55% unprotected left main, 85% Medina 1,1,1 lesions) true bifurcated lesions undergoing drug-eluting-stent implantation.nnnCONCLUSIONSnThe jailed balloon protection is a novel technique aimed at improving SB protection during provisional stenting of bifurcated lesions considered at high risk of SB compromise after MV stenting.

Coronary stents and vascular response to implantation: literature review

Drug-eluting stents (DESs) have minimized the limitations of bare-metal stents (BMSs) after percutaneous coronary interventions. Nevertheless, serious concerns remain about possible late complications of stenting, such as stent thrombosis (ST) and in-stent restenosis (ISR), although the introduction of second-generation DESs seems to have softened the phenomenon, compared to the first-generation ones. ST is a potentially catastrophic event, which has been markedly reduced by optimization of stent implantation, novel stent designs, and dual antiplatelet therapy. The exact mechanism to explain its occurrence is under investigation, and, realistically, multiple factors are responsible. ISR of BMSs has been previously considered as a stable condition with an early peak (at 6 months) of intimal hyperplasia, followed by a regression period beyond 1 year. On the contrary, both clinical and histologic studies of DESs have demonstrated evidence of continuous neointimal growth during long-term follow-up, named “late catch-up” phenomenon. The acknowledgment that ISR is a relatively benign clinical condition has been recently challenged by evidences which reported that patients with ISR can experience acute coronary syndromes. Intracoronary imaging is an invasive technology that allows identifying features of atherosclerotic plaque of stent implanted and of vascular healing after stenting; it is often used to complete diagnostic coronary angiography and to drive interventional procedures. Intracoronary optical coherence tomography is currently considered a state-of-the-art imaging technique; it provides, compared to intravascular ultrasound, better resolution (at least >10 times), allowing the detailed characterization of the superficial structure of the vessel wall. Imaging studies “in vivo,” in agreement with histological findings, suggest that chronic inflammation and/or endothelial dysfunction may induce late de novo “neoatherosclerosis” inside both BMSs and DESs. So, neoatherosclerosis has become the prime suspect in the pathogenesis of late stent failure.