Covered Stents Compared to Bare-Metal Stents to Treat Chronic Atherosclerotic Mesenteric Arterial Disease

June 8, 2012—The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) announced the presentation of a comparison of outcomes using percutaneous transluminal angioplasty and stenting with iCast covered stents (Atrium Medical Corporation, Hudson, NH) or bare-metal stents in patients with chronic mesenteric ischemia (CMI). Investigators from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga presented the study at the SVS 2012 Vascular Annual Meeting in National Harbor, Maryland.

“We reviewed the clinical data of nonrandomized 225 patients (65 male and 160 female; mean age, 72 ± 12 y) treated for CMI (2000-2010),” commented the Mayo Clinic's Gustavo S. Oderich, MD, in the SVS press release. “Outcomes were analyzed in patients who had primary intervention or reintervention using bare-metal stents (164 patients, 197 vessels) or covered stents (61 patients, 67 vessels). Endpoints were freedom from restenosis, recurrence, and reintervention, and primary and secondary patency rates.”

As summarized in the SVS press release, patients in both groups had similar demographics, cardiovascular risk factors, and extent of disease. Mean follow-up was 27 ± 12 months. The investigators found that patients treated with covered stents had less restenosis, recurrences, and reinterventions compared to those treated with bare-metal stents, both in the primary intervention and in the reintervention groups (P < .05). Primary patency at 2 years was significantly higher for covered stents compared to bare-metal stents in the primary intervention group (91±6 vs 60 ± 5; P < .003), reported the investigators.