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  • Editorial: Drug-Eluting Balloons Are Coming, But Are We Ready?

    On a Monday morning in Paris, France I've just finished a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) on a marginal branch using a drug-coated balloon (DCB). The reference vessel diameter is 2.0 mm, and I carefully prepared the lesion with several balloon inflations before inserting the DCB. The final result looks good to me, and I ask Tony, our interventional cardiology fellow if he agrees. His polite answer and body language clearly show that he's not satisfied with the haziness and type B dissection I've obtained after DCB angioplasty. He would have preferred shoving down a 2.25-mm drug-eluting stent (DES) to obtain a pristine, overinflated result to satisfy his young ego …In the discussion that follows the case, he clearly believes that late lumen loss (LLL) is less and clinical outcomes are better with DES in small vessels.

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