We have investigated the role of drug-eluting stents on patency rates after treatment of focal infrapopliteal lesions in patients with intermittent claudication and critical limb ischemia. Reports indicate that drug-eluting stents reduce the risk of restenosis after percutaneous infrapopliteal artery revascularization. A Pub Med, EMBASE, Cochrane database review search of non-randomized studies investigating patency rates, target lesion revascularisation rates, limb salvage rates and mortality rates in an up to 3-year follow-up period after drug-eluting stent placement was conducted. In addition, preliminary results of randomized studies comparing drug-eluting stents with bare-metal stents and plain balloon angioplasty in treatment of focal infrapopliteal lesions were included in this review. A total of 1039 patients from 10 non-randomized and randomized studies were included. Most commonly used drug-eluting stents were sirolimus-eluting. The mean follow-up period was 12.6 (range 8 - 24). The mean 1-year primary patency rate was 86 ± 5 %. The mean target lesion revascularization rate and limb salvage rate was 9.9 ± 5 % and 96.6 %±4 %, respectively. Results from non-randomized and preliminary results from prospective, randomized trials show a significant advantage for drug-eluting stents in comparison to plain balloon angioplasty and bare-metal stents concerning target lesion patency and in parts target lesion revascularisation. No trial reveals an advantage for drug-eluting stents with regard to limb salvage and mortality.
