Bioresorbable scaffolds: Current knowledge, potentialities and limitations experienced during their first clinical applications

The traditional metallic stents have significant limitations as they predispose to late thrombosis, may preclude surgical revascularization and distort vessel physiology. Bioresorbable scaffolds (BRSs) are a relatively new technology introduced to overcome these drawbacks. The potential of these devices as well as the reported results from their clinical applications attracted interest and drove research and industry towards the development of new BRSs and the improvement of the existing devices. Thus, over the last years considerable progress has been made and today numerous BRSs are available. The aim of this review article is to highlight the potentialities of these devices, describe the evidence from the recent clinical trials and discuss the advantages, limitations and concerns that were aroused during the first implementation of BRSs in clinical arena.