Should paclitaxel be considered an old generation DCB? The limus era
Gaetano Di Palma, Erick Sanchez-Jimenez, Florin-Leontin Lazăr, Bernardo Cortese
Abstract
Since their introduction Drug Coated Balloons (DCBs) have slowly gained their spot into everyday cath-lab practice, first for treatment of in-stent restenosis (ISR), more recently for small vessels disease; today a growing body of evidence start supporting their use in more complex lesions, from bifurcations, to large vessels, to acute lesions. Although the new generation of DCBs showed a better performance and safety than the older one, the drug of choice has always been the Paclitaxel; last year some concerns were raised on the safety of Paclitaxel devices, in particular the balloons mining their use. Recently Sirolimus ventured in the DCBs world, making its appearance on cath-lab shelves and becoming a good alternative to Paclitaxel (DCB).