Percutaneous revascularization for peripheral arterial disease: paclitaxel saves the day.

Patients presenting with femoropopliteal (FP) disease often require revascularization for lifestyle-limiting claudication medical therapy that failed, or for critical limb ischemia. Percutaneous revascularization for FP disease has been fraught with challenges since the initial description of percutaneous transluminal balloon angioplasty (PTA) of the FP artery. Due to high rates of arterial dissection and restenosis after PTA, randomized comparisons of selfexpanding stents and PTA for FP disease have been performed and have demonstrated the superiority of stenting (1,2). Nevertheless, restenosis rates with self-expanding nitinol stents are 19% to 37% at 1-year follow-up, and options for the treatment of FP restenosis are limited (1,2).