Future Directions of Drug‐Eluting Stents

Coronary artery stents have changed the face of interventional cardiology since their introduction in 1986. The commercial release of drug‐eluting stents in 2002 promised to abolish in‐stent restenosis as the predominant clinical limitation following stent implantation. Concerns raised about increased risks of adverse events with drug‐eluting stents now appear unfounded but have heralded a new era of research, where only hard clinical end‐points in sufficiently large numbers of patients are considered adequate. In this review, we highlight some of the potential future directions of drug‐eluting stents including specialized stent platforms (including dedicated bifurcation stents), fully degradable stents, and the potential use of stents to prevent cardiac events.