Bioresorbable vascular scaffolds in saphenous vein grafts (data from OCTOPUS registry)

Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) of saphenous vein grafts (SVG) with metallic stents is associated with a high rate of restenosis (19–21%) and target vessel failure in the long-term follow-up [1]. Potentially, implantation of a bioresorbable vascular scaffold (BVS) (ABSORB, Abbott Laboratories) into the stenotic SVG may be an alternative to metallic stents [2]. Although the effectiveness of BVS in treatment of de novo coronary lesions in native vessels is well documented [3], none of the previous studies evaluated the results of BVS implantation into SVG. Recently, we reported an imaging follow-up of a case of successful BVS implantation to treat a de novo stenotic SVG lesion [4–6]. Therefore, in this report we present pilot results from the OCTOPUS registry of a subgroup of patients with significant de novo SVG stenosis treated with BVS implantation.