Drug-eluting balloon angioplasty versus bare-metal stent in treating chronic total occlusion of femoropopliteal arterial segment: a review of 1-year outcome of 90 patients with TASC C and D lesions

Background
Bare-metal stent (BMS) scaffolding of superficial femoral artery occlusive lesions has been associated with high rates of late clinical failure. Maintaining the patency of recanalized arterial segments was the main issue behind the concept of leaving nothing behind to be evolved and percutaneous balloon angioplasty becomes the preferred option for endovascular therapy. Drug-eluting balloons (DEBs) have shown to be an effective alternative to BMS for patients with de novo complex superficial femoral occlusive disease.
Aims
The aim was to compare the outcome of DEB versus BMS in treating complex chronic total occlusion of superficial femoral and proximal popliteal artery in patients with disabling claudication and critical limb ischemia regarding technical success, primary patency, clinically driven target lesion revascularization (cd-TLR), and limb salvage rate.
Materials and methods
The current study is a multicenter, prospective, randomized study. Ninety patients (110 limbs) complaining of disabling and critical limb ischemia due to complex femoropopliteal occlusive lesions were randomly allocated into two groups according to the intervention method performed. Group A included 48 patients (57 limbs) who were submitted for treatment with paclitaxel DEBs and group B included 42 patients (53 limbs) submitted for treatment with BMS. The follow-up period was for 1, 6, and 12 months. Statistical analysis was performed by using the IBM SPSS Statistics version 22 for Windows Program Package (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA).
Results
BMSs seem to have lower patency and higher cd-TLR rates compared with patients who received paclitaxel drug-coated balloons but was not statistically significant. The primary patency rates were 100, 96, and 86.2% at 1, 6, and 12 months’ respectively’ in the DEB group versus 100, 89.8, and 77.6% at 1, 6, and 12 months, respectively, in the BMS group. Clinically driven TLR rates were 2 and 7.8% at 6 and 12 months, respectively, in the DEB group versus 6.1 and 14.2% at 6 and 12 months, respectively, in the BMS group.
Conclusion
Percutaneous therapy for Trans atlantic inter-societies consensus (TASC) C and D femoropopliteal lesion using DEB or BMS is safe and effective with a high patency rate of 1 year. Paclitaxel drug-eluting balloons seem to have a promising role in the prevention of restenosis and recurrence of peripheral arterial occlusive disease. However, stents are still playing important bailout role in the treatment of residual stenosis and dissection. Further follow-up is essential to obtain and document long-term outcome of different percutaneous therapy for complex and long superficial femoral artery (SFA) lesions.