Drug-coated balloon and stent therapies for endovascular treatment of atherosclerotic superficial femoral artery disease.

Endovascular management of superficial femoral artery disease has historically been limited to percutaneous balloon angioplasty, atherectomy, and bare-metal stents. However, these therapies have been plagued by high restenosis and target lesion revascularization rates. More recent technologies such as drug-coated stents and balloons are designed to combat restenosis by locally delivering antiproliferative drugs. Several randomized controlled trials have directly compared these antiproliferative drug-delivering devices to their non-drug-coated counterparts. Additionally, trials are currently ongoing to compare use of drug-coated technologies in combination with traditional therapies in hope of synergistic effects. This review gathers data from currently published clinical trials, provides an overview of upcoming clinical studies utilizing drug-coated technology, and explores the possible impact these devices may have on clinical practice.