Very late stent thrombosis after bare-metal stent implantation: case reports and review of the literature.

Stent thrombosis (ST) is a catastrophic complication that frequently presents as an acute myocardial infarction and/or death. The most recently accepted definition established by the Academic Research Consortium classifies ST as: early (occurring within 30 days), late (30 days to 1 year) or very late (after 1 year). Very late ST has been reported following drug-eluting stent implantation with rates up to 0.6% per year and has been attributed to delayed strut endothelialization. However, very late ST is unusual after bare-metal stent (BMS) implantation. We report two cases of patients presenting with ST-elevation myocardial infarction due to very late ST 6 and 8 years after BMS implantation.