Absorbable Scaffold Outperforms Angioplasty for Lower-Leg Artery Disease - Weill Cornell Medicine Newsroom
In patients with severe artery blockage in the lower leg, an artery-supporting device called a resorbable scaffold is superior to angioplasty, which has been the standard treatment, according to the results of a large international clinical trial co-led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian. Angioplasty involves the widening of a narrowed artery with a small, balloon-like mechanism. A resorbable scaffold is a stent-like structure that props the artery open but is biodegradable and dissolves within a few years, avoiding some of the potential complications of a permanent stent. In the clinical trial, as reported Oct. 25 in the New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers compared the insertion of a resorbable scaffold—imbued with a drug to reduce the chance of re-blockage—to standard angioplasty in 261 patients with severe artery disease below the knee. They found that 74 percent of the patients who received the resorbable scaffold avoided a bad outcome su