Provisional stenting--stent-like balloon angioplasty: evidence to define the continuing role of balloon angioplasty for percutaneous coronary revascularization.

To clarify the current role of balloon angioplasty in interventional cardiology, in an era of increasing development of new devices, especially stents, we performed a retrospective comparative evaluation within the well-known BENESTENT trial. We defined a balloon angioplasty result of diameter stenosis less than 30% by quantitative angiography a 'stent-like' result and compared 6-month angiographic and 1-year clinical outcome with patients undergoing Palmaz-Schatz stent implantation. Patients having a so-defined 'stent-like' result had similar angiographic and clinical outcomes to patients receiving a stent. It is concluded that achievement of a postangioplasty diameter stenosis less than 30% may be considered clinically equivalent to the average result of Palmaz-Schatz stent implantation.