Comparison of Drug-Coated Balloons With Drug-Eluting Stents in Patients With In-Stent Restenosis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

In-stent restenosis (ISR) is the gradual narrowing of the stented coronary segment, presenting as angina or leading to an acute myocardial infarction. Although the incidence has decreased with the use of newer drug-eluting stents (DES), it still carries significant mortality & morbidity. We compared the two most common interventions, i.e. drug-coated balloons (DCB) vs drug-eluting stents (DES) for managing DES-related ISR. Electronic databases were searched to identify all randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing DCB to DES in patients with DES-ISR. The Mantel-Haenszel method with a random effects model was used to calculate pooled risk ratios (RR). Five trials comprising 1,100 patients (577 in DCB and 523 in DES group) were included in the final study. The mean follow-up was 42 months. DCB was found to have a higher risk for target lesion revascularization (TLR) (RR: 1.41, p: 0.02) compared to DES. No difference was observed in all-cause mortality, target vessel revascularization (TVR), myocardial infarction, or stroke between the two intervention arms. In conclusion, management of DES-ISR with DCB has a higher risk of TLR as compared to re-stenting with DES. Both therapeutic interventions are comparable in other terms of efficacy and safety profile.