Coated stents to prevent restenosis in coronary heart disease

Background In-stent-restenosis (ISR) is considered to be an essential limiting factor of stenting in coronary heart disease (CHD). The development of coated stents has raised expectations on substantial lowering restenosis after stenting with decreasing the rate of restenosis and a reduction in the rate of clinical events. Objectives The present analysis addresses the questions on medical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the use of various coated stent types in CHD. Methods The literature was searched in December 2004 in the most relevant medical and economic databases. The medical evaluation was conducted on the basis of published RCT. The data from the studies regarding various angiographic, sonographic and clinical endpoints were checked for methodical quality and summarised in meta-analyses. Within the scope of economic evaluation the primary studies were analysed and modelling was performed, applying clinical effect estimates from the meta-analyses of the medical evaluation and current estimates of German costs. Results Medical evaluation Ten different stenttypes were used in the included 26 RCT. The results for heparin, silicon-carbide, carbon and PTFE coated stenttypes could not reveal any significant differences between the medical effectiveness of coated and uncoated stents. The application of sirolimus, paclitaxel, everolimus and 7-hexanoyltaxol eluting stents showed a significant lower restenosis at 6-9 months with decrease in the rate of restenosis for polymer-based sirolimus, paclitaxel and 7-hexanoyltaxol eluting stents. In contrast, the use of gold-coated and actinomycin-D eluting stents was associated with a significantly higher restenosis. The polymer-based sirolimus and paclitaxel eluting stents also showed a significant and considerable reduction in the rate of repeated percutaneous revascularisations at 6-12 months (3.5% vs. 19.7%; p<0.0001, RR=0.19 [95%CI: 0.11; 0.33] and 3.5% vs. 12.2%; p