Pharmaceutical aspects of drug eluting stents.

This review focuses on the pharmaceutical aspects of the development of drug eluting stents. It discusses the different processes that can be used to obtain a controlled release of a drug from the stent as well as the coatings therefore applied. Results obtained for stents already available on the market or in a far stage of development are discussed. In a final part possible future research areas as well as expected new evolutions in the design of drug eluting stents are presented.