immediate small side branch occlusion after percutaneous coronary intervention

background: small side branches, albeit less important than their larger counterparts, have not yet received due attention in the literature. nor has there ever been a comparison between drug-eluting stents and bare metal stents apropos side branch occlusion . the aim of this study was to compare the patency of small (≥0.5 and ≤1.5 mm in diameter) side branches with respect to bare metal vs. drug-eluting stents immediately after their deployment . methods: this prospective bi-center study, conducted between june 2005 and january 2007, enrolled 82 patients treated with ≥1 of two stents (taxus tm liberte tm or liberte tm ). side branches ≥0.5 and <1.5 mm in diameter arising from the main vessel at the lesion site were evaluated . results: thirty-eight patients were treated with 42 liberte tm stents (58 side branches) and forty-four patients with 50 taxus tm liberte tm (102 side branches). the rate of small side branch occlusion was 35.3% (36) in the taxus tm liberte tm group compared to 29.31% (15) in the liberte tm group (p-value= 0.7). the presence of type 1 side branch morphology (lefevre classification) was the most powerful predictor of small side branch occlusion (p-value=0.03). conclusion: this study shows that drug-eluting stents are not inferior to bare metal stents as regards small side branch occlusion during coronary stenting .