Bioabsorbable Stents: So Far So Good

Most people don’t like the idea of having a chunk of metal sitting in their body for the rest of one’s life, so the “ideal” for any medical device is to make it bioabsorbable. It’s only a matter of time before the degradable-craze hits the stent market, and Abbott is making the first move.
Two days ago Abbott announced that a clinical trial of their drug-eluting PLA absorbable stent is going well. Here’s a bit from their press release:

Six- month results from the first 30 patients in the trial, presented at the 56th Annual American College of Cardiology Scientific Session in New Orleans, demonstrated no stent thrombosis and a low (3.3 percent) hierarchical rate of ischemia-driven Major Adverse Cardiac Events (MACE), such as heart attack or repeat intervention.
“The encouraging results from the first 30 patients of ABSORB suggest that drug-eluting bioabsorbable stent technologies may be a promising future therapy option for physicians treating patients with heart disease,” said Patrick W. Serruys, M.D., Ph.D., professor of interventional cardiology at the Thoraxcentre, Erasmus University Hospital, Rotterdam, who is co-principal investigator of the study. “A drug eluting stent that would eventually disappear after restoring blood flow is an exciting concept that we look forward to further exploring.”
Abbott’s everolimus-eluting bioabsorbable stent is made of polylactic acid, a proven biocompatible material that is commonly used in medical implants such as dissolvable sutures. As with a metallic stent, the bioabsorbable stent is designed to restore blood flow by propping the vessel open, providing support until the blood vessel heals. Unlike a metallic stent, a bioabsorbable stent is designed to be slowly metabolized by the body and completely absorbed over time.

While six months is a good amount of time, isn’t it a little too early to celebrate? Let’s not jinx it here, guys.
Read the press release here…