Safety and efficacy of drug-eluting stents and bare metal stents in acute coronary syndrome

Compared with medical therapy, percutaneous coronary intervention has been shown to reduce the rates of death and recurrent ischemia in patients presenting with acute coronary syndromes (ACS). In the current interventional era, both drug-eluting stents (DES) and bare-metal stents (BMS) have been widely used, despite the fact that the use of DES in the context of ACS was initially an “off-label” indication and that ACS has been associated with stent thrombosis (ST). In contrast to the wealth of data available for the use of DES in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction, data regarding the performance of DES in non–ST-elevation ACS is restricted to a handful of registries with conflicting data. The aim of this review was to summarize the safety and efficacy of DES in the entire spectrum of ACS.