Long-term comparative analysis from an all-comer cohort of coronary patients treated using first-and second-generation drug-eluting stents

AIMS: Second-generation drug eluting stent (DES) implantation gradually replaced the first-generation DES in clinical practice. Whether the new DESs in use differ from one another, in terms of clinical outcomes, is still not known. We explored potential differences among DESs. METHODS AND RESULTS: We followed 9584 consecutive patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention at our institution (2004-2012; mean follow-up, 2.8 years). Patients treated with bare-metal stent (BMS; n ≤ 5599; 58.4%) were compared to 3985 DES counterparts (41.5%). The sirolimus-eluting stent (SES) served as the prototype for comparison to other DES types, using propensity matching. The primary outcome was a composite endpoint of total mortality, myocardial infarction, and clinically driven target vessel revascularization or coronary artery bypass graft. At 3 years, the composite endpoint was significantly lower in the DES vs BMS group (17.9% vs 25.3%; P<.001). Comparisons between SES and each of the five other stent types yielded no significant differences for the primary composite endpoint: SES vs paclitaxel-eluting stent (n ≤ 350 pairs; 18.1% vs 17.7%; P≤.70); vs zotarolimus-eluting stent (n ≤ 474 pairs; 21.8% vs 23.2%; P≤.35); vs Resolute zotarolimus-eluting stent (n ≤ 434 pairs; 16.9% vs 11.7%; P≤.70); vs everolimus-eluting stent (n ≤ 824 pairs; 14.2% vs 14.1%; P≤.60); and vs biolimus-eluting stent (n ≤ 117 pairs 13.7% vs 13.4%; P≤.60). CONCLUSIONS: Cardiac prognosis did not differ between sirolimus and other DES types. The use of DES was associated with better clinical outcomes compared to BMS.